Thirst

The UK has been experiencing some unusually hot weather this summer, including a record temperature recorded one day. Warnings have been put out by the media to avoid spending too much time in the sun and encouraging people to keep drinking water because of the danger of dehydration.

Similarly, the Bible gives plenty of health warnings! We are encouraged to keep drinking the living water that Jesus provides for us. This will bring spiritual well-being, and will also bring benefits physically, mentally and emotionally. However, just as it is difficult to remember our need to drink natural water if we are not thirsty, so it is easy to forget our need of Jesus’s living water if we are not thirsty for more of Him. The psalmist in today’s verse compares his longing for God with the thirst that a deer would experience during a chase. Do we have that kind of thirst for the living God?

Jesus implies in John 7:37-38 that it is those who thirst who will be filled: ‘If anyone thirsts, let him come to me and drink. He who believes in Me, as the Scripture has said, out of his heart will flow rivers of living water’. Jesus is speaking here about the Holy Spirit. He gives three criteria for those who desire to be filled – thirsting, coming to Jesus, and drinking. We need to do all three, and the first thing is to have a desire, or a thirst.

God also speaks through Isaiah about thirsting: ‘Ho! Everyone who thirsts, come to the waters’ (Isaiah 55:1). He then goes on to speak about the importance of listening to Him and hearing Him, so that our souls can delight in the richest of fare and will live (Isaiah 55:2-3). It seems from this passage too that the key to receiving all that God wants to give us is to have a longing for Him (a thirst), and to keep coming to Him to drink.

So, when we are thirsty during the current hot weather, let’s use that as a reminder, not only of the need to keep drinking natural water for our health, but also of the need to drink continually of the living water that Jesus offers us.

Prayer: Lord, I am sorry for the times when I have forgotten my need of You and have not come to You to drink of the living water You have for me. Please increase my thirst for You and help me to remember to come to You constantly for all that I need. In Jesus’ name, Amen.