This study guide was produced by Keswick Ministries. Keswick Ministries hosts a Convention for 3 weeks each summer in the English Lake District. They also run year-round teaching and training events and produce digital and printed resources. The central vision of Keswick Ministries is to see the people of God equipped, encouraged and refreshed to love and live for Christ in his world. We hope you are blessed by this series.

Getting Started

Does God feel distant? If there is a sin you’re harbouring, or you’ve stopped reading your Bible and praying, then it’s hardly surprising. But sometimes there is no obvious reason why God feels far away.
Imagine teaching a child to ride a bike. At first, you’re holding the back of the bike, cheering her on, but, after a while you slowly release your hand and run alongside her. You’re still there but you’ve got to take your hand away so the child learns to ride. Sometimes God appears to take his hand away to teach us to trust him, to stretch our faith, to make us long for him even more.
David was in the desert, fleeing from his rebellious son Absalom. He doesn’t appear to have any sin blocking his relationship with God, but the parched land prompted him to realize his thirst for God. Amazingly, in this hostile environment, and with his heart breaking over his family situation, David experienced startling clarity about what he needed most: a deeper experience of God.

From the Bible – Psalm 63

1 You, God, are my God,
earnestly I seek you;
I thirst for you,
my whole being longs for you,
in a dry and parched land
where there is no water.

2 I have seen you in the sanctuary
and beheld your power and your glory.
3 Because your love is better than life,
my lips will glorify you.
4 I will praise you as long as I live,
and in your name I will lift up my hands.
5 I will be fully satisfied as with the richest of foods;
with singing lips my mouth will praise you.

6 On my bed I remember you;
I think of you through the watches of the night.
7 Because you are my help,
I sing in the shadow of your wings.
8 I cling to you;
your right hand upholds me.

9 Those who want to kill me will be destroyed;
they will go down to the depths of the earth.
10 They will be given over to the sword
and become food for jackals.

11 But the king will rejoice in God;
all who swear by God will glory in him,
while the mouths of liars will be silenced.

Discussion Points

• Think back to a time when you longed for a deeper, more satisfying experience of God. What circumstances provoked that longing for God?
• How does the psalmist describe
  • a. His longing for God (verse 1)?
  • b. Intimate communion with God (verse 5)?
• What motivates David’s longing? See verse 2.
• What determined action is David taking to satisfy his desire for God? See verses 3–8, 11.

What makes life worthwhile is having a big enough objective, something which catches our imagination and lays hold of our allegiance, and this the Christian has in a way that no other person has. For what higher, more exalted, and more compelling goal can there be than to know God?

(J. I. Packer, Knowing God, p. 36)

• How do the following images describe the type of relationship God wants with us?
  • Jesus as the bridegroom (Isaiah 62:5)
  • Jesus as the bread of life (John 6:35)
  • Jesus as the vine (John 15:1–4)
  • Jesus as the host (Psalm 23:5)
• Look at Ephesians 3:16–19 and 4:11–13 where Paul talks about the ‘fullness of God’ and the ‘fullness of Christ’. How can we obtain this fullness?
• Even the apostle Paul, who was such a dedicated follower of Christ, declared, ‘I want to know Christ’ (Philippians 3:10–11). What would this deeper experience of God entail?

Forgetting what is behind and straining towards what is ahead, I press on
towards the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenwards in Christ Jesus.

(Philippians 3:13–14)

Personal Application

• What holds you back from wanting more of God?
• What determined action do you need to take in order to pursue more of God?
• In his letters Paul encourages this pursuit of Christ to be a collective pursuit, a whole-church endeavour. How can you encourage one another in this?

One might think that those who feast most often on communion with God are least hungry. They turn often from the innocent pleasures of the world to linger more directly in the presence of God through the revelation of his Word. And there they eat the Bread of Heaven and drink the Living Water by meditation and faith. But, paradoxically, it is not so that they are the least hungry saints. The opposite is the case. The strongest, most mature Christians I have ever met are the hungriest for God. It might seem that those who eat most would be least hungry. But that’s not the way it works with an inexhaustible fountain, and an infinite feast, and a glorious Lord. When you take your stand on the finished work of God in Christ, and begin to drink at the River of Life and eat the Bread of Heaven, and know that you have found the end of all your longings, you only get hungrier for God.

(John Piper, A Hunger for God, p. 23)

PRAYER TIME

‘You, God, are my God.’ Like the psalmist, reaffirm your allegiance to God
and his commitment to you. Reflect on all the evidence of God’s love towards you, and respond in praise and thanksgiving.

My God, give me yourself, restore yourself to me. See, I love you, and
if it is too little, let me love you more strongly . . . Make my life run to
your embraces, and not to turn away until it lies hidden ‘in the secret
place of your presence’ (Psalm 31:20).

(St Augustine, The Confessions, p. 278)