Hosea 1:2 , When the LORD first spoke through Hosea, the LORD said to Hosea, “Go, take to yourself a wife of harlotry and have children of harlotry; for the land commits flagrant harlotry from not following after the LORD.”
Psa. 63:8 My soul followeth hard after thee: Thy right hand upholdeth me.
Jer. 29:13-14a, You will seek Me and find Me when you search for Me with all your heart. I will be found by you,’ declares the LORD,…
Ps. 143:6 I stretch out my hands to You; My soul longs for You, as a parched land.
Matt. 5:6, “Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be satisfied.
Ex. 33:13, Now therefore, I pray You, if I have found favor in Your sight, let me know Your ways that I may know You, so that I may find favor in Your sight….”
Only in relationship with the living God can the satisfied thirst result in thirst for more. To seek Him with all of your heart is to find Him. He lets us find Him; and to find Him is to be ruined for anything else, or any other pursuit, than to keep seeking Him and keep finding Him over and over again.
In that Exodus passage, Moses prays that in light of finding God’s favor he longs to know God and His ways better that he might find favor in God’s sight. His experience of God’s favor ignited a desire in him to know God and His ways better that he might experience more favor.
Jn.17:3, “And this is eternal life: [it means] to know (to perceive, recognize, become acquainted with, experience, and understand) You, the only true and real God, and [likewise] to know Him (in the same way), Jesus Christ, Whom You have sent”
We were created to experience Him. That is at the heart of the eternal journey we who posses eternal life are on. We were created to only be fully satisfied in, and by His presence; yet to be satisfied in Him is to never be satisfied until we experience more of Him.
It is the glorious paradox that the stuff paradise is made of. I believe, just like with the thief on the cross, all of us who are born again are invited into this Paradise. The moment we give our lives to Jesus we begin our lives in paradise. We don’t have to wait for Heaven to experience paradise; because the moment the Holy Spirit invades our lives the Paradise of experiencing His presence, and the thirsting-satisfaction-thirsting begins.