Is Your Soul Thirsty?

 

God wrote the Bible, through men, over thousands of years. It covers hundreds of topics, but has one overarching goal—to show us who God is, how much we need him, and how to find him and then follow him. 

God is the perfect author, and he knows us perfectly. He wants to save and care for our souls, but he knows we need help to understand our spiritual state. So he gives us physical examples that are easy to understand. Then, still holding onto that physical reality that we know, he tells us how it is also our spiritual reality.

One of my favorite metaphors that the Bible uses, because is so easy for me to understand, is thirst. Because it is so good, God uses it throughout the Bible and it was much more powerful for people in biblical times. They lived in dry lands and thirst wasn’t so much an issue of discomfort as of life and death. 

Here’s a modern-day equivalent for us. You’ve been hiking in the desert landscape of Moab in Utah. You’re several days in and the supply of water you brought with you has run out. You must have taken a wrong turn because you can’t find the campground. It’s been an especially hot summer, so all the rivers are dry creek beds—their dusty bottoms only torturing you with the fact that at one time they were flowing with water.

As a result, you aren’t just thirsty, you’re dehydrated. Your tongue has swollen and feels like sandpaper in a mouth that can’t offer it any moisture. Your eyes and cheeks are sinking into your face. The desperation and dry, sandy wind are making you cry—but your body has no tears. Your skin is extremely dry and your lips are cracked and bleeding. Your head aches, muscle cramps are setting in, and in confusion you drop to the ground right in the sun, not even thinking of shade.

But this doesn’t mean you’re dumb, or can’t understand your condition. You know you are dying of thirst; you need water! As a fellow hiker happens upon you and runs over to you, the truth of their offer resonates immediately. They say, “You don’t have long to live—neither did I, but I found a fountain of pure spring water that flows into a shimmering river! I tasted its sweet coolness. I’ve seen it plunging from the rock, down into deep blue pools, and its spray has covered and refreshed me. Come with me, I will show you how to find it, be saved and delighted, just as I was—it’s closer than you think!”

On the way you see someone bent over a small greenish mud puddle. Another hiker is holding a bottle of vodka. If they say, “don’t follow that guy, we have all you need right here,” you won’t stop. Those may look like answers, but they won’t save you. You know this because extreme hikers don’t brink dirty water or vodka to keep them hydrated. Plus, why settle—get all that your body is dying to experience and more.

Ok—there’s the powerful reality. It’s obvious and we can relate to it—so hold on to that and let me ask you something. Is your soul thirsty today? Is it parched and dry? Do you feel like dropping to your knees and giving up and you don’t even care if the sun is beating down on you? Does Psalm 63:1 sound like your inner dialog sometimes?

O God, you are my God; earnestly I seek you;
    my soul thirsts for you;
my flesh faints for you,
    as in a dry and weary land where there is no water.

You may reply, “That’s sort of how I feel. My soul is thirsting for sure, but I’m not thirsting for God.” Many people would agree with you. I can relate to that. In the Old Testament, God’s people felt that way, too. In Jeremiah 2:13, God says:

for my people have committed two evils:
they have forsaken me,
    the fountain of living waters,
and hewed out cisterns for themselves,
    broken cisterns that can hold no water.

So, either we don’t believe that God is the only one who can quench the thirst of our dehydrated souls, or we don’t want to follow him on his terms. We’re willing to put a lot of effort into digging empty wells instead of going to the fountain of living waters. It’s so tragic, because none of the mud puddles or alternative drinks we’re choosing are saving us—we know that, we feel so soul-thirsty. His terms are generous—Jesus tells the Samaritan woman, who’s lived with six different men and still has a parched soul,

“If you knew the gift of God, and who it is that is saying to you, ‘Give me a drink,’ you would have asked him, and he would have given you living water.” (John 4:10)

and

“Everyone who drinks of this water will be thirsty again, but whoever drinks of the water that I will give him will never be thirsty again. The water that I will give him will become in him a spring of water welling up to eternal life.” (John 4:13b, 14)

As we scrounge around today, in desperation, wondering why none of our dreams are working out the way we wanted; trying to come up with some new, creative way to stop the dry croaking screams from our soul. We need to remember that Jesus extends the same offer to us. He’s personally inviting you right now. I’m like that other hiker, inviting you (and me!) to give up on our barren efforts. Let’s go drink and completely satisfy ourselves!

The thirst metaphor shows up at the end of the story, in the last chapter of Revelation, with a personal invitation from the Spirit of God, and his bride—all the saved hikers who were thirsty.

Then the angel showed me the river of the water of life, bright as crystal, flowing from the throne of God and of the Lamb (Revelation 22:1)

The Spirit and the Bride say, “Come.” And let the one who hears say, “Come.” And let the one who is thirsty come; let the one who desires take the water of life without price. (Revelation 22:17)