Have you ever driven through the desert? Many years ago when my oldest was just a baby, we drove from San Diego, California to Yuma, Arizona. That road takes you through some incredible wilderness. I saw enormous vultures, the like I have not seen since. But what really stuck in my mind from that road trip so many years ago, was the dry heat. It was so powerful that it felt like it sucked the moisture right out of your body. We could not drink enough throughout those hours of driving, and at that time, there were almost no places to stop and get water. The thirst that I felt was unquenchable.
As I look back on that time, I am reminded that there is also another kind of thirst, a thirst that few talk about, but most if not all of us struggle with. It is the spiritual thirst that God put in us, that causes us to never feel satisfied. God created within us a vacuum, an inner void or empty place that only He Himself could fill. Even though this thirst, or void, is spiritual, it manifests itself in physical ways. And just like the dry California desert heat, this thirst cannot be quenched by physical or emotional things. It often expresses itself through addictions, but the fix is always temporary.
What are you thirsty for? What do you crave above all else on earth? Is it love, acceptance, food, sex or perhaps something else that is so deep and so hidden inside of your soul, that you can hardly find the words to express it? You just know that you have a deep longing for something, and nothing will satisfy that craving, no matter how hard you try. The Bible calls that intense desire, thirst. The gospel of John tells us in John 7:37 that Jesus literally addressed this issue: “On the last day, that great day of the feast, Jesus stood and cried out, saying, “If anyone thirsts, let him come to Me and drink.“ What is it that Jesus offered them to drink? He tells us in the next sentence. “He who believes in Me, as the Scripture has said, out of his heart will flow rivers of living water.” John 7:38
We are told a story in John 4 about Jesus coming across a woman who was getting water from the town well at noon. He had an interesting conversation with her. Clearly, she was thirsty, which is why she was getting water. But He started the conversation with an odd request. Jesus asked the woman for a drink! This startled her and here’s what happened next: “Then the woman of Samaria said to Him, “How is it that You, being a Jew, ask a drink from me, a Samaritan woman?” For Jews have no dealings with Samaritans.” (John 4:9) He then tells her that if she knew who she was talking to, she would have asked Him for a drink and He would have given her living water. Not fully understanding what living water was, she thought it meant she would never have to walk back to the well and get water again. Jesus cut to the chase and addressed her thirst. He told her to go get her husband. If you know the story, she responds by telling him she has no husband. And that is when it gets interesting because Jesus tells her that she’s actually had 5 husbands and the one she has now is not her husband. This woman was indeed thirsty and it appears from her life that no man had ever been able to quench that thirst.
But why would Jesus ask her to get her husband? Because it is not until we identify the cause of our thirst, that we can begin to recognize that no one, not any man or woman, not money or power, nor food or sex, or anything else on this earth can ever quench our thirst for the living God. It is not until we admit this to ourselves that we can come to Him and ask for this living water, the water that only Jesus the Rock can give us.
We are given a foreshadow of this living water in the book of Exodus when we are told about the children of Israel who had been wandering about in the wilderness with Moses. The thrill of leaving Egypt was gone and now they were left wandering around in a dry and barren land for many days. How often do our lives feel like this? We feel like we have been wandering around in a wilderness, alone, hot and without any satisfaction, looking for a promised land that never seems to get any closer than our distant horizon or dreams. They were thirsty! They were literally dying of thirst and they blamed Moses. In Exodus 17:1-6 we are told their story. They believed it was his fault that they were in this situation and he was responsible for why they didn’t have anything to drink. So Moses went to the Lord and told Him the situation. (As if He didn’t know) The Lord told Moses to go to the rock in Horeb, and the Lord Himself would stand before Moses, and Moses should strike the rock and water would come out. Moses did exactly what he was told, and miraculously, water came gushing out of the rock.
How does this relate to being spiritually thirsty? The prophet Isaiah tells us in Isaiah 53:4.
In this chapter Isaiah describes the crucifixion, and says that God would “reckon Him stricken, struck down by God and afflicted”. The Father struck Jesus, the Rock, so that living waters would come out of Him. Paul confirms this in 1 Corinthians 10:1-13 when he tells us that the children of Israel “all drank the same spiritual drink. For they drank of the Spiritual Rock that followed them, and that Rock was Christ”.
So I ask again, what are you really thirsty for? Identify your craving, not the physical symptom that you use to momentarily satisfy it, but the deeper one, the one that you can’t face because it is too painful. When you have found it, come to the One who has the living water and ask Him for a drink. He has promised that He will grant your request. His love for you is so great, that He laid down His life for you, so you could spend eternity with Him. He died on that cross, so you could live. And He is calling you, yes you, and telling you that He desires to give you living water. His name is Jesus. In Isaiah 55:1, Isaiah, like Jesus in the temple, cries out: “Ho! Everyone who thirsts, Come to the waters!” Cry out to Him and He will answer you.
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