Dehydration

During the blazing hot Texas summers, you have to drink a lot of water.  I have heard that once you are thirsty, you are already starting to get dehydrated and need to drink water to replenish your body's supply.

The other day, I was reading the story of the Woman at the Well in John 4 and thinking about thirst.

"Everyone who drinks this water will be thirsty again, but whoever drinks the water I give him will never thirst.  Indeed, the water I give him will become in him a spring of water welling up to eternal life" (John 4:13-14).

I have always related this passage to what I thought of as thirst: my need to be satisfied, my desires' need to be quenched. But this time, I saw that my tendencies are not true thirst, but just greed or gluttony or temptation.  Thirst in the literal sense is about water, which our body needs to survive. True thirst is life or death, not whims and fancies, hopes or daydreams.  When we thirst, we are already in need. 

Jesus is talking about our spiritual thirst, which is based on what we need to live.  We are thirsty because our sin has separated us from His perfect glory.  He quenches our thirst once and for all through salvation, offered to us by Jesus' death on the cross, which was the sacrifice needed to restore our relationship with God.  Then He provides a spring within us through the Holy Spirit, eternally quenching our thirst, daily allowing communion with God.

The well in the Samaritan town of John 4 was a gathering place, a vital part of the whole community because everyone needs water.  Even though this woman hoped to avoid people because of her past and current lifestyle, she still came to the well; she had to. She needed water to live.  Once there, she was shocked to meet Jesus and more shocked that he wanted to talk with her and asked her for a drink because "Jews do not associate with Samaritans" (John 4: 9).

I love that, though we may think we need to approach God's throne in a certain way or at a certain time, He meets us at His well any time.  He knows our baggage and speaks truth over us--just as He did with the Samaritan woman and her past and present.  He offers us LIFE, not death. He saves us. He quenches our thirst.   And then He gives us an eternal spring.

I so often come to God, thinking, "Oh, my thirst, my hopes, my dreams, my desires...." He is not condemning my hopes and dreams; He is not invalidating those or saying no. Instead, He is shifting the focus back to the real priority--salvation, living water, eternal life.  I need to have an eternal perspective, not an earthly one.