A Desert TransformedSample

I Thirst

Are you thirsty?

I am privileged to live somewhere that has clean water on tap, but other parts of the world have very little water and people have to keep digging new wells as old ones dry up.

Thirst is a primal need. We cannot survive physically without water and when we feel thirsty, the relief we experience from drinking is profound. 

Thirst and God’s power to quench it, is expressed throughout the Bible, especially when the Israelites were wandering in the wilderness for forty years. God provided miraculously for them, even causing a stream to erupt out of a rock when Moses struck it with his staff (Numbers 20:11).

Only God could do this and only God can reach our inner thirst, which goes even deeper than our physical need. We thirst for meaning in life – for fulfilment, love, beauty, hope, truth and ultimately God Himself. Only God can truly satisfy that longing. As Jesus cried out, “Let anyone who is thirsty come to me and drink. Whoever believes in me, as Scripture has said, rivers of living water will flow from within them” (John 7:37). 

Are you thirsty?

Do you know what your heart is aching for?

Jesus longs to meet that need and it was that very heartache that He carried to the cross, where His words, “I thirst” were some of His last. He who offered living water to all, knew the deepest thirst possible. His agonising death, His willingness to carry our thirst that we might be satisfied, and ultimately His passionate longing for us to receive His love, were all enshrined in those words.

Pray with me…

Thank you, with all my heart that you satisfy my thirst completely. Thank you that you died on the cross that I might know the depths of your love and that my love for you brings joy to your heart too. I give you all my emptiness and shame, Lord, and ask that you will fill that deep inner thirst with your promised streams of living water. Amen.