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It is human to need God. In a very real sense, our need for God has nothing to do with religion or with any weakness or depravity on our part. We need God simply because we are human. In fact, the deep sense of a need for God is the mark of a genuine and normal humanity. King David said, “As the hart pants after the streams of water, so my soul pants for You, O God. My soul thirsts for God, for the living God” (Psalm 42:1). David’s thirst for God was not religious in nature; it stemmed from the fact that David was human. The thirst for God is a fundamental characteristic of our “humanness”; it distinguishes us from all the other living creatures on the earth. Only man senses a need for God. Human history is filled with man’s quest to satisfy his deep inner thirst for God.

Vessels of God

When God created mankind, He did not create an instrument for doing a certain kind of work. He created a vessel, a container, to contain Himself.  Speaking of God as the Creator, the apostle Paul said, “Does not the potter have authority over the clay to make out of the same lump one vessel unto honor and another unto dishonor?” (Rom. 9:21). God is the divine Potter, and we are the earthen vessels formed by Him to contain Himself. The purpose of our human existence is to be filled with God so that we may express Him.

As vessels of God, we were made in the image of our Creator (Gen. 1:26). Furthermore, God formed a human spirit within us so that we might have a way to receive Him (Zech. 12:1). God is Spirit (John 4:24), and we have a human spirit deep within us so that we can contact, receive, and contain God (Prov. 20:27). Our spirit is like our physical stomach. When our stomach is empty, we feel hungry and dissatisfied.  Likewise, when our spirit is empty, void of God, we sense an inner hunger in the depths of our being.  This hunger is part of our human makeup, and nothing in the universe but God Himself can fill it.

Eternity in Our Hearts

God not only created us with a spirit; He also put eternity in our hearts (Eccl. 3:11). This means that in our human heart there is an aspiration for something eternal. Regardless of how rich or successful we may be, deep within us there is a gnawing sense of vanity and a cry for reality. No temporal thing can fill this inner emptiness. This proves that within us there is an aspiration for eternal things.  Only One in the universe is eternal—the eternal God. Only He can satisfy the aspiration for eternity in our hearts.

Meeting Our Basic Human Need

Within us there is a thirst to be filled with God, and within God there is a corresponding desire to enter into us and be one with us. To fulfill His desire and quench our thirst, God became a man by the name of Jesus Christ. This man was filled with God, and God was manifested in all His words and deeds.  As such a person, Jesus is the most normal human being who ever lived. He is what God intends for all of us to be—a human being filled and overf lowing with God. At the end of His life Jesus, the Godman, was crucified to remove the sin of the entire human race (John 1:29). On the third day He rose from the dead, and through His resurrection He became a life-giving Spirit (1 Cor. 15:45b). Now as the life-giving Spirit He is available and ready to enter into your spirit and quench your inner thirst for God.

Just open yourself to Him and say to Him:

“O Lord Jesus, I need You, and now I receive You.
Wash away my sins and come into me to fill the emptiness in my spirit.”

He will surely answer your prayer, and your most basic human need—the need for God—will be satisfied.