Thirsty
Even though I’ve heard this statistic numerous times, I forget that our bodies are made up of 70% water! Is there water in Diet Coke? If so, I love water! If not, I still have some plain old water drinking to do in 2018! Water helps us to not become dehydrated and helps our organs function. It’s so important! So, what happens when we don’t drink water? We get tired, dizzy, and crampy, just to name a few side effects. Knowing these facts alone should motivate me to drink more, so here’s hoping that happens! Really!
Are you ever so thirsty that you can’t seem to cure the parched sensation no matter how much you drink? I am on occasion, and I often don’t drink the liquid which will satisfy my body’s need for hydration.
Here’s the deal. I can thirst and drink so many other beverages to hopefully quench my thirst, but water is the very best way to hydrate and take care of my body.
There’s another type of thirst though – the thirst to fill up those empty places deep inside us. Jesus says He is the water to quench this deeper thirst - “the water I give them will become in them a spring of water welling up to eternal life” (John 4:14). David, in the Psalms, says this to the Lord, “As the deer pants for streams of water, so my soul longs after you, O God. My soul thirsts for God, for the living God” (Psalm 42:1). Have you ever been so thirsty that you can barely stand it? When I think of those times in my life, particularly of those time when in other countries where purified water was harder to find, I recall my desperation and how I would go to practically any length to quench my thirst. It’s a bad feeling! Comparably, shouldn’t that be how I search for and long for Jesus?
Just as water is for the body, so is Jesus for our soul.
I forget that Jesus encompasses 100% of our being. Is there anyone or anything that can replace him? I need to be spending so much more time with my Father than I have been because when I don’t, personally, what happens to me? I get more depressed, I cannot fight my eating disorder, I get easily overwhelmed and insecure. I make poor choices because I make them in my own wisdom. But perhaps one of the most devastating consequences when I am not seeking Jesus and thirsting for time with him is that no one can fill the loneliness in my life. He is the only one who can encompass and penetrate my whole heart and soul and walk this life out with me. He combats the lies that aim to paralyze me. Nothing and no one can replace Him, and nothing was made to!
I challenge both you and me to drink hydrating water to nourish and protect our physical bodies given as a gift for us to take care of. We’ve got to take care of ourselves. But, without a doubt, the most important thirst to pay attention to is our thirst for Jesus. Are we longing for anything to quench that thirst? If so, let’s go to God and ask for a longing for him and him alone. No substitutes will ever be as vital to our being.
Amazing parallels! To anything with a heartbeat, water is the key sustainer. To a Christian, Jesus is the only sustainer. So, isn’t it fitting that Jesus is the Living Water?