Thirsty?
Recently, I’ve been trying to drink more water. It never ceases to amaze me just how hard I find it to stay hydrated. I have no trouble drinking large amounts of coffee or tea or even juice, but water is a struggle—and water is the very thing my body needs.
Last Friday was the ten-day mark for my latest quest to drink enough water, and partway through the morning, I was startled to find myself actually thirsty! And it wasn’t due to extreme dehydration, either. Nor was it a craving for coffee or tea. I was thirsty for water.
Suddenly, emptying my water bottle was no longer a chore. It was no longer a task performed with apathy. Instead, it was now the satisfaction of a craving, refreshing, even enjoyable! The more I give my body what it needs to be healthy, the more my body craves those things when needed. A body trained to deprivation does not crave with the same intensity or the same frequency as one used to plenty.
And it’s the same way with us in our relationship with God. Jesus said,
“Blessed are they which do hunger and thirst after righteousness: for they shall be filled.” Matthew 5:6
The more you and I fill our hearts and minds with the Word of God, the more time we spend seeking God in prayer, the more we will come to desire those things, and find our satisfaction in them. The more we say “yes” to the Holy Spirit and “no” to the cravings of our sin nature, the more we will desire to please and obey God.
You see, thirst can be trained.
So often, we turn to worldly things to fill the empty places in our hearts and lives, but we were designed to be fully satisfied only by God. Paul’s prayer in Ephesians 3 illustrates this:
For this cause I bow my knees unto the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, Of whom the whole family in heaven and earth is named, That He would grant you, according to the riches of His glory, to be strengthened with might by His Spirit in the inner man; That Christ may dwell in your hearts by faith; that ye, being rooted and grounded in love, May be able to comprehend with all saints what is the breadth, and length, and depth, and height; And to know the love of Christ, which passeth knowledge, that ye might be filled with all the fulness of God.” (vv.16-19)
This is what God wants for us: to be strengthened by the Spirit, rooted and grounded in love, with an experiential understanding of breadth and length and depth and height, knowing God’s love and filled with all the fulness of God.
How do we get there?
By training our hearts, minds, and souls to crave more of God. Read the Bible, pray. Even when it feels like mere duty, perform that duty with a heart to get thirsty for God, and you will!
“And of His fulness have we all received, and grace for grace.” John 1:16