In Psalms, chapter forty-two, verse two, water is essential for physical life, so God and His presence are essential for satisfaction and wholeness of life. The believers will hunger and thirst for God and His grace, blessing, and supernatural activity. To stop thirsting for God is to die spiritually. Therefore, we must not allow anything to diminish our intense desire for the things of God. Beware of the cares of this world, the pursuit of earthly things, and the pleasures that choke out hunger and thirst for God and the desire to seek his face in prayer, as in Mark four, verse nineteen.
Believers should pray that their longing for God’s presence might be strengthened, their love for the full manifestation of the Holy Spirit might be greater, and their passion to see the fullness of Christ’s kingdom and righteousness might be deepened until they cry out to Him day and night in a heartfelt thirst, even as the deer “panteth after the water brooks” in times of drought, as in verse one.
Matthew five, verse six relates to the theme verse: The foundational requirement for all godly living is hunger and thirst after righteousness, as in Matthew six, verse thirty-three. Such hunger was seen in Moses, in Exodus thirty-three, verses thirteen and eighteen, in Psalmist of Psalms sixty-three, verses one through eleven, and the Apostle Paul in Philippians three, verse ten.
The spiritual condition throughout their lives will depend upon their hunger and thirst for the presence of God, as in Deuteronomy four, verse twenty-nine, the Word of God, as in Psalms one hundred and nineteen, the communion of Christ, as Philippians three, verses eight through ten, the fellowship of the Spirit, as in John seven, verse thirty-seven to thirty-nine, and Second Corinthians thirteen, verse fourteen, righteousness, in Matthew five, verse six, kingdom power, in Matthew six, verse thirty-three, and the return of the Lord, in Second Timothy four, verse eight.