Are You Thirsty?

     I wish I always did what I knew I was supposed to do. My life would be much better if I did! It can be very frustrating. I am in good company though. Paul also experienced this frustration when he said, “Why do I do the things I don’t want to do and I don’t do the things I want to do?” We have studied for days why it is important to drink water. We have the information. Does that mean we will all start drinking our water, eliminate drinking pop, and drink tea, coffee, juice, and milk in moderation? I wish it was that easy. It will take more than hearing why we need water; we will have to develop a thirst for it. I think we develop a thirst two ways. One way is to bring up the heat. When we are hot and sweating we want something cold to drink. If it is summer, it is easy to get hot and want to drink some ice water. However, in the middle of winter it is more challenging. Working out and sweating is a great way to bring up the heat. We will want water if we are hot and sweating! The other way we will develop a thirst for water is to drink water. I understand that is an unusual principle but it is true. When I did not drink water, I never craved it. When I started drinking water, I started to thirst for it. Before long it is the only thing that satisfied.
     Again, the same principles apply spiritually. We may want to consume Living Water on a constant basis but before we know it, we are drinking in everything else but Living Water. We have to develop a thirst for it. That thirst is developed when the heat rises from the hard times in life. It is when life takes us through a desert. When I was in Peru, standing in the middle of a desert on a sand dune, I remember looking out over the horizon and thinking about walking across it. How hard it would be to walk in that hot sand, each step sinking deep, and the sun beaming down on you. It would be impossible to do without water. If you found yourself in that situation, you wouldn’t have a problem experiencing thirst. I don’t think it would be a mild thirst, I think it would be intense, to the point of being painful. Jesus is waiting to consume you with refreshment. He is our oasis in the middle of our desert. He gives us the only thing that can help us recover from the severe heat. The other way we develop a thirst for Living Water is to spend time with Jesus. The more we are with Him, the more we study about Him, the more we obey Him, the more we develop a thirst for Him. Before we know it, we will realize that nothing else satisfies. The thirst continues to grow and the thirst can be so strong it is painful.
     Do you have a painful need to be refreshed? Refreshed can be defined as “recovering from the effects of the heat”. Do you need to be relieved from the effects of the heat in your life? Only when we develop a painfully, conscious thirst will we drink in the Living Water and reflect Jesus. We cannot reflect anyone that is not a part of us. Will you commit today to develop your thirst for Jesus and drink Him in daily? Only Jesus can keep us spiritually hydrated.

Let everyone who is thirsty (who is painfully conscious of his need for those things by which the soul is refreshed, supported, and strengthened) let him come, take, appropriate, and drink the water of life.
Rev. 22:17