Thirst – it is such a powerful and natural craving for water, that failing to fulfill that desire leads to death. The power of this desire makes for an appropriate Biblical metaphor when describing the desire to know God.
Thirst, even more demanding than hunger, is that spiritual desire to know a loving Father and return to Him in the garden. It begins when your knowledge and your wisdom wars against His wisdom and you’re made aware… there’s something more. And you’re called to respond.
Some people may be stubborn, holding onto their own comfortable views of themselves, others, and the world around them, denying the real possibility of anything more. Others heed the call – surrendering their own willful desires, going all in, and never looking back; they are blessed with glimpses of more, more, then even more.
And a group of us, from Missouri – the ‘Show Me’ state, take a few tentative steps. After all, we don’t want to be wrong or suffer awful insults from our peers. But we begin to look around at the world around us. We start taking an objective look at our past experiences and the people that have been part of our lives. And we take that first significant step and cry out to God in our distress. And He answers… “I’ve been waiting.”
The next steps can’t come fast enough. That’s when the real spiritual thirst begins and you realize there is nothing in this world that can satisfy.
This is not a new thing. This thirst is described throughout scripture. When you read the Bible, not because you have to, but because you want to, you find fellowship with the authors in these verses.
Before Jesus:
Psalm 42:2 – My soul thirsts for God, for the living God; When shall I come and appear before God?
Psalm 63:1 – O God, You are my God; I shall seek You earnestly; My soul thirsts for You, my flesh yearns for You, In a dry and weary land where there is no water.
Spoken through God’s prophet:
Amos 8:11 – “Behold, days are coming,” declares the Lord GOD, “When I will send a famine on the land, Not a famine for bread or a thirst for water, But rather for hearing the words of the LORD.”
Spoken by Jesus:
John 4:13-14 –Jesus answered and said to her, “Everyone who drinks of this water will thirst again; but whoever drinks of the water that I will give him shall never thirst; but the water that I will give him will become in him a well of water springing up to eternal life.”
John 6:35 – Jesus said to them, “I am the bread of life; he who comes to Me will not hunger, and he who believes in Me will never thirst.
John 7:37 – Now on the last day, the great day of the feast, Jesus stood and cried out, saying, “If anyone is thirsty, let him come to Me and drink.
After Jesus:
Revelation 21:6 – Then He said to me, “It is done I am the Alpha and the Omega, the beginning and the end I will give to the one who thirsts from the spring of the water of life without cost.”
Revelation 22:17 – 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 wishes take the water of life without cost.”