How do you know when you’re thirsty?
I’m not a big water-drinker. I often quip about how dehydrated my generation must have been before water was bottled and priced by brand. Now, water, by itself, isn’t enough. We add flavors and vitamins to make water healthier!
Basically, we live in culture who doesn’t really understand thirst. What we don’t experience, we can’t address.
It’s true spiritually, as well. You can live without spiritual thirst, but not abundantly. You can push through your busy days and drink your bottled water and still die of a thirst you never stopped long enough to register.
Reconnecting with our thirst for Jesus is one of the reasons we take this journey to the cross. It’s partly what fasting teaches: our need for something other than what we’ve used to meet some appetite or desire. If we never do without some excess, we won’t understand how inadequately we have been meeting the need.
Find your thirst today. But not just for water. What would happen if you carried spiritual refreshment with you as easily as you carry your water bottle? What if you don’t leave home without a quote, a verse, a song in the same way you won’t leave home without your water bottle? What if you treated spiritual thirst as serious business, as if your life depended on it?
God invites you to His oasis for thirsty travelers. It’s called Sabbath. Sabbath is more than a worship experience. Sabbath is coming to a place of inner quiet where God, Himself, meets you to fill some need you have been filling ineffectively. Sabbath is you answering God’s timeless call “Hey everyone. Are you thirsty for a way of life that starts in the heart? Let me give it to you, abundantly. Don’t bring money or excuses. Just bring yourself and drink to your heart’s content.” (see Isaiah 55:1)
When you do, you will start recognizing spiritual thirst. And you will know where to go to quench it.
Scripture to guide your way to the cross . . .
Saturday
O God, you are my God, I seek you, my soul thirst for you; my flesh faints for you, as in a dry and weary land where there is no water. Psalm 63:1
On a scale of 1-5, how thirsty are you for God? Connect with that thirst as you prepare to worship with your faith community tomorrow.
Sunday
As the deer pants for streams of water, so my soul pants for you, O God. My soul thirsts for God, for the living God. When can I go and meet with God? Psalm 42:1-2
Do you genuinely and deeply thirst for God like a panting deer desperate for water? Enter worship connecting with your need to connect with God.
Monday
My soul is satisfied as with a rich feast, and my mouth praises you with joyful lips. Psalm 63:5
When you connect with your thirst for God, let Him show you the need He has resources to meet. Satisfaction waits!
Tuesday
Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they will be filled. Matthew 5:6
Do you see the promise in this verse? If you thirst for the right thing, you will find your need met. How does that apply to something you are searching for?