Are You Thirsty For The Living Water?

Thirst is a craving of fluids and is an essential mechanism as far as keeping our body’s fluids in balance. It arises in us from a lack of water. The National Geographic says that a desert is an area that receives no more than 10 inches of precipitation each year. The amount of evaporation far exceeds the amount of precipitation. Deserts are a barren wasteland with little to no vegetation or wildlife. In extreme heat, such as in a desert, a person can become dehydrated within a few hours and could die from it within a day.

The amount of water a person needs to survive varies on each individual. It depends on if that person is already taking in foods that are water based such as fruits and vegetables or if they are consuming breads and grains that soak up water. It also depends on if that person lives in an environment where they sweat more than the average person.

This got me thinking about how our need for God varies as well. Don’t get me wrong, I believe we all need God in all circumstances, but some circumstances draw us into a deeper need for God. Think about it. When things are going well in our lives, we are going to God in praise and thanksgiving. Our prayers may not be as desperate and pleading as when our life is in need of help. We still go to God and grow our relationship with Him during the good times, but it is in our darkest moments that we lean on Him to survive.

David was in the desert of Judah, and he was looking over the dry and parched land. He was lonely as he was hiding from his enemies. He looked out across the land and longed to be with God. He longed for God’s companionship, the Friend he could trust. David was dehydrated and needed God’s holy water to fill him.

When have you felt that way? Maybe you were lonely like David. Maybe it was a desperate cry for help. Perhaps you simply felt a million miles away from Jesus and needed to be fulfilled by His mercy and grace. There are many things that can dehydrate us in this world and leave us yearning for the only water that can quench our thirst, the living water.

As Jesus talks to the Samaritan woman at the well, he invites her to drink His living water. He says in John 4:13-14, “Everyone who drinks this water will be thirsty again, but whoever drinks the water I give them will never thirst. Indeed, the water I give them will become in them a spring of water welling up to eternal life.” The Samaritan woman was dehydrated and dying of thirst, but not in the sense of the clear water that flows here on earth. She needed the living water that only Jesus can offer. She was like David in the desert; she needed Jesus as her everlasting companion.

When we get a taste of Jesus’ everlasting water, we long for its comfort, peace, trust, and dependence. We desire and long for more and more. This New Year’s, one of my resolutions was to drink at least 96 ounces of water each day. The more I drank, and my body felt what is was like to be fully hydrated, the more my body wanted the water I was putting in it. When I first started drinking that much, it was hard to get it all down. Now it is easy to have 64 ounces drank before lunch. The more we fill our bodies with Jesus, his Word, praying, and seeking Him, the more we desire and need to be filled by Him.

I have heard from many people how difficult it was to start their quiet time with Jesus and to make a habit of doing it. Once they began doing it and was filled with the Holy Spirit through this time with Jesus, it became something they could not live without. Jesus’ living water becomes a necessity in our lives once we get our first taste of it. Our bodies long for it and it becomes a part of who we are, children of God. It satiates a thirst we didn’t even know we had.

Our thirst for Jesus is real. It’s not a made-up thing in our heads and it is not a longing for something earthly that leaves us unfulfilled, it is a thirst that can be satisfied by the living water that is gifted to us by the Holy Spirit. May we each welcome it and recognize its goodness.

Digging Deeper:

Read John 4:1-26

What area of your life is in need of Jesus’ living water?

What can you change in your life so that you are getting the amount of Jesus you need each day?

How does Jesus satiate your thirst?