Dying of Thirst

But whosoever drinketh of the water that I shall give him shall never thirst; but the water that I shall give him shall be in him a well of water springing up into everlasting life.

–John 4:14

For the past four years, I’ve taken the single young women of our church through a group study. This time around we are working through a book by Esther Burroughs entitled, “Splash the Living Water”. At our first meeting last night, we discussed the need to take deliberate time before the Lord, because, if we want to offer the Gospel to a dying world, there has to be something within us to give in the first place! Also, if we are constantly giving of that Living Water, but never return to the Source for refilling, we will eventually drain dry.

One day, while in on the reserves in Canada this past summer, my teammate and I were sitting with our luggage by a deserted runway, so as to catch our flight that was to arrive at about 4:30pm to take us to another reserve. Well, if there’s anything I learned about flying, it’s that delays are normative. We waited. And waited. We marched around the empty airport singing everything we could think of (or make up on our own) to pass the time. Hours passed. Every little thing started sounding like a plane engine, “Is that it?!”

Finally our flight arrived at 7:30pm. But, more delays. We didn’t have enough gas to get to the next reserve, so we would have to head somewhere closer to fuel up, and then fly back south to headquarters for the night. (We would be taken back up north in the morning.) By the time we reached the fueling station two hours later, my teammate and I were feeling a bit light headed and ill. We didn’t tell our pilots (who had no means of solving the problem anyways), but we hadn’t eaten since noon, and we were positively starving! We sat on the steps of the cock pit to steady the sudden dizzy spells. “Only a little bit longer.” We told each other.

Back in the plane again, and we’re headed “home”. When we land at 10:00pm, a sweet mother and daughter have come to drive us to headquarters. The little girl scoots closer to me on the back seat and offers some freshly picked wild blueberries and strawberries. We indulge.

Upon arriving at the guest house, the mother asks if we’d like anything to eat. “Yes!!” She opens the refrigerator wide and we fill ourselves full to busting with her bounty of baked spaghetti and homemade apple crisp. We told them of our adventures in between mouthfuls, and leaned back sleepy in our chairs once we’d cleared our plates.

I remember how hungry I was at that time. I couldn’t function properly because my body knew it was lacking something necessary, and was suffering from the effects of it. I think of a baby. When a baby is hungry or thirsty, they cry out! They keep crying until they get that which they desire, and know they cannot live without.

We should have that same hunger and thirst for the Lord and His Word. To be so thirsty for the things of God that we cry out for it! It something we must have! If we are abiding in the True Vine, and spending time with the Lord in His Word, we will be fed.

May we keep that insatiable hunger for a deeper knowledge of, and relationship with, the Lord Jesus.

Are you thirsty?…