What does it mean to pant? This is an unusual expression of a thirst for something, and when it is for God, we know it is a spiritual thirst for God. People in life pant for water when there is none. People pant for their heart’s desires when there is no fulfillment. People yearn for what they are thirsty for, either for their own self-interest or lust or for enjoyment.

However, panting for God ought to be an expectation for everyone, most especially when someone feels like he’s been distant from God due to challenges or because of the busyness of life.

As we know, distancing oneself from God can be related to the exhaustion we lull ourselves into. Maybe we do not know that what is keeping us busy has stylishly sent us away from God. Or secondly, it can be due to the challenges which are against us that make us forget where we can find ease and tranquility.

This David understood, hence the reason he said in Psalm 23, “He made me lie down in green pastures, leading me beside the still waters,” a place where he can be fed. He knew that submission under God’s guidance is the solution to any pant/desires that he may be having because God will definitely lead him beside the still waters so that he may drink.

And the lack of this understanding has made many people pant for water brooks at the wrong places, so they are satisfying their needs by drinking from the wrong source, which only gives temporary satisfaction to them.

But from where we read, we see a man who is yearning for God in the midst of his distress here, who would not let his worries blindfold him and make him forget that it is in God he can find what would quench his thirst and satisfy his hunger.

He felt consumed with thoughts of the worship of God that he had once experienced at the temple in Jerusalem among throngs of joyful believers, and that made him encourage himself that what was missing would be restored.

There are some of us whose stance is no longer what it used to be before God. Situations, comfortability, change of environment, change of career, new mingles have distanced us from our first love. We’ve been distant from the gathering of the saints. We seem so far away yet we see it as a norm.

This word of God is coming to us so that we may know that our desire should be to see and touch God again.

Even though the psalmist felt distant from God’s presence, he longed for intimacy with his God. A Christian must not be distant from his God as that can be detrimental to his stance in Christ Jesus.

Because distancing ourselves from God gives room for the devil to attract us to him, and that is why today people backslide without knowing it, even though they still call themselves Christian or they still believe, after all, that things are working for them.

What we do not know is that this soul that we have is just one, and it is delicate, and we cannot feed these souls of ours the wrong drink. It must not drink from the wrong well, because there will be pollution if we do so. Our souls will be contaminated with the evil germs which will make us be quarantined away from God.

This the psalmist understood, and though his soul panted for a way out, even though his soul panted for a solution, instead of releasing his soul to drink from contaminated water of temporary solution from the world, instead of his soul drinking from the water of sin, so that his distress would be long gone, instead of him mingling with the world to cater to his need…

He subjected and submitted his soul to thirst for God. He would not wait to appear before his Maker again. This message is for those who have left home, who have left the gathering of the brethren, who have stopped calling upon the name of the Lord, who have forsaken God because of the distresses they are in, for those who do not believe God can quench their thirst again and are now running after worthless idols and temporary solutions.

God is calling you back to drink from His source. God said you should have your soul pant for Him again, for He is the one who can satisfy your weary soul. The Bible says in Jeremiah 31:25, “He will satiate the weary soul and replenish the sorrowful soul.”

So have your soul pant for God. Have your soul pant for your Maker. You might have been cast down. Your soul might have become disquieted within you. Your tears might have been your food day and night. You might have been mocked. People may be asking you, “Where is your God?”

Come on somebody, you are not alone. All you have to do is find a way to appear before God. Let your soul thirst for Jesus, for the living God, for He will never forget you. He will satisfy you. What others could not satisfy you with is in His hands. He’s got the whole world in His hands.

Let your soul pant for God today and you will praise Him. Let your soul hope in God and you will yet praise Him. Your hope must not be misplaced. Your faith must not be shaken. Your trust in God must remain solid and strong so that God may satisfy your wants and your needs.

Enough of feeling distant from God’s presence. It is time to long for intimacy with God, for that is how your encounter will be so sure.

David said in Psalm 122, “I was glad when they said to me, ‘Let us go into the house of God.'”