GodReflection:
My soul thirsts for God, for the living God. When can I go and meet with God? – Psalms 42:2
It’s not fair. I have never been thirsty. Even though I was born and raised in the Chihuahuan Desert of New Mexico, I do not recall the experience of dire thirst. I mean the kind with no hope of water in sight.
Sure, I filled my canteen from a rancher’s windmill pipe when out in the foothills and at times it ran low or perhaps ran out. But not once did I feel the panic or fear of death from thirst. The next drink would not be all that far ahead. But once back home I have always had access to clean water piped directly into my house. No, life is not fair. I have lived among the blessed.
Yet, what I have described fails to give expression to another reality. I was born thirsty. It’s a God gene planted in every human soul. I am wired to thirst for God.
It’s the feeling of incompleteness. It’s the thought that there must be more. It’s the awe that every human being has experienced periodically in the presence of rainbows, starlit skies, and majestic mountains filled with color and regal creatures.
It’s the thirst planted by God and affirmed by King Solomon: He has made everything beautiful in its time. He has also set eternity in the human heart; yet no one can fathom what God has done from beginning to end (Ecclesiastes 3:11).
I would guess that God’s greatest desire is to see us sip the Holy water. How He hopes that I will become addicted to water that offers the only source of real hope that exist. His thirst-quenching water provides a strange sensation. It satisfies as it simultaneously creates a thirst for more.
Like so many others who live in the “over developed” world, I’m sure thirst doesn’t create near the word picture in my reality that it creates in people without water systems to provide fresh cool water available at the turn of a faucet.
From a cave in the Desert of Judah, David described his thirst for God with the words: You, God, are my God, earnestly I seek you; I thirst for you, my whole being longs for you, in a dry and parched land where there is no water (Psalms 63:1).
David knew thirst. His thirst for God was desert thirst. His thirst for God was a parched thirst. Any sensation of physical thirst that I may have ever felt stands anemic when placed alongside David’s. Yet, both David’s thirst and my thirst find refreshment in Jesus and his promises.
From his voice I hear the promise of being satisfied if I thirst for righteousness. I hear the reassurance in his voice when he invites a thirsty immigrant woman, he meets at a desert well, to trust him for a drink that will satisfy her thirst forever. It is the best water she will ever find. One drink and she will never thirst again (John 4:14).
From his voice I hear the very same promise—water he gives will cause me to never thirst. It is like the possession of a spring of water in my soul welling up to eternal life. My thirstiness invites me to trust Jesus when I hear him say whoever believes in me will never be thirsty (John 4:14).
Jesus closes Holy Scriptures with these words: To the thirsty I will give water without cost from the spring of the water of life (Revelation 21:6). 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).
Jesus’ thirst-quenching spring is free. It’s a gift. No charge for the thirsty! His water has a special ingredient, the flavor of grace. How about a drink? Once again, it’s free.
What would it be like each time cold water touches our lips, if we would remember again and again, as it cools our mouth and offers refreshment to our dry throat, that only Jesus can refresh our daily walk?
Only with the water Jesus provides can we satisfy our soul’s thirsts for God, for the living God as we do life on the parched roads of our here and now. Only with the water Jesus provides can we sustain life and be enabled by him to arrive alive at our eternal destination. Are you thirsty? How About a Drink?
Stay tuned.
Dr. Gary J. Sorrells – A GodReflection on How About a Drink?
God Reflection 
Great reminder Gary and well said. Along with you I am grateful for the water of life that we have in Jesus!
LikeLike
Excellent! May we all continue to have this thirst for God and His will.
LikeLike