Spiritual Thirst

We have all had times when we have been thirsty – that feeling when we need a drink, which becomes more pronounced and urgent when we don’t have immediate access to water or another drinkable substance. We salivate, longing for a drink. Our thirst is quenched when we are able to drink.

Just like physical thirst, we also thirst spiritually. We have a need in our inner being, like a thirst, that can’t be quenched by anything other than spiritual connection with God.

We attempt to quench our spiritual thirst by many factors and pursuits but nothing apart from God will ever satisfy the spiritual thirst we have.

Sometimes, we are not even aware of our spiritual thirst until we become increasingly discontent or circumstances occur that reveals our spiritual state.

This spiritual thirst was captured by the psalmist in the following psalm:

As the deer pants for streams of water, so my soul pants for you, my God. My soul thirsts for God, for the living God. When can I go and meet with God? (Psalm 42:1-2)

Jesus taught about the living water He offers to quench spiritual thirst.

One day Jesus met a woman at a well, who was there to draw water. Jesus was tired from travelling and sat down by the well to rest. The conversation went like this:

When a Samaritan woman came to draw water, Jesus said to her, “Will you give me a drink?” (His disciples had gone into the town to buy food.) The Samaritan woman said to him, “You are a Jew and I am a Samaritan woman. How can you ask me for a drink?” (For Jews do not associate with Samaritans. ) Jesus answered her, “If you knew the gift of God and who it is that asks you for a drink, you would have asked him and he would have given you living water.” “Sir,” the woman said, “you have nothing to draw with and the well is deep. Where can you get this living water? Are you greater than our father Jacob, who gave us the well and drank from it himself, as did also his sons and his livestock?” Jesus answered, “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.” (John 4:7-14)

Just like the Samaritan woman at the well, Jesus offers you living water…sustenance that quenches your spiritual thirst, that meets your deep, internal spiritual need for love, acceptance, validation, connection, and relationship with God and gives you eternal life.

The water that Jesus offers is living, it gives spiritual life to your body and being. It makes you come alive spiritually, made possible through the indwelling presence of God’s Spirit within you.

On the last and greatest day of the festival, Jesus stood and said in a loud voice, “Let anyone who is thirsty come to me and drink. Whoever believes in me, as Scripture has said, rivers of living water will flow from within them.” By this he meant the Spirit. (John 7:37-39)

Jesus purpose for coming to earth was to give you eternal, spiritual life, if you choose to accept and believe in what Jesus did for you and enter into a personal relationship with Him. Jesus described it as being ‘born again’.

Jesus replied, “Very truly I tell you, no one can see the kingdom of God unless they are born again. ” “How can someone be born when they are old?” Nicodemus asked. “Surely they cannot enter a second time into their mother’s womb to be born!” Jesus answered, “Very truly I tell you, no one can enter the kingdom of God unless they are born of water and the Spirit. Flesh gives birth to flesh, but the Spirit gives birth to spirit. You should not be surprised at my saying, ‘You must be born again.’ The wind blows wherever it pleases. You hear its sound, but you cannot tell where it comes from or where it is going. So it is with everyone born of the Spirit.” (John 3:3-8)

Jesus’ offer of living water is a fundamental and vital message from God to mankind, which is reinforced at the very end of the Bible in the book of Revelation, in the final chapter, in the final verses of the chapter, where Jesus says these words:

“Look, I am coming soon! My reward is with me, and I will give to each person according to what they have done. I am the Alpha and the Omega, the First and the Last, the Beginning and the End.” (Revelation 22:12-13).

The Spirit and the bride say, “Come!” And let the one who hears say, “Come!” Let the one who is thirsty come; and let the one who wishes take the free gift of the water of life. (Revelation 22:17)

Will you accept Jesus invitation of living water…eternal, spiritual life?