Thirsty?

Have you ever been thirsty? There have been times that I have felt so thirsty that it seems nothing can quench my thirst...my tongue and mouth still felt dry and parched. I have also felt that spiritually.......I have felt thirsty for God. My life felt dry and parched or even just stagnet. I was reminded of the woman at the well in John 4. She had gone through 5 husbands and was working on a sixth. She longed for her thirst to be quenched. I have felt that way and although I haven't gone through 5 husbands......I have a "well" that I have tried to fill with so many other things.....trying to quench my thirst and satisfy the longing of my heart. My "husbands" might look like relationships in which I try to get noticed, approved, and validated; maybe a career that we invest so much in so that we feel important; or even exercise we engage in excessively so that we are "valued" for our bodies; or our families that we pour everything into, working hard to feel as though we are worthy wives and mothers.

John 4:7-9 - "When a Samaritan woman came to draw water. Jesus said to her. "Will you give me a drink?".....The Samaritan woman said to him, "You are a Jew and I am a Samaritan woman. How can you ask me for a drink?" (For Jews do not associate with Samaritans.)

Did Jesus ask her for a drink because He was really thirsty? Was he incapable of getting a drink? As you read the whole story in John 4 you will see that He doesn't even take a drink. He didn't ask her for a drink because He was thirsty or even incapable of getting a drink himself. Thirst was the ice-breaker Jesus could use to initiate a conversation with her that wouldn't send her off running. The request was for her, not him. He wanted to quench her thirst by transforming her from the inside out with rivers of living water.

A thirsty woman needed the living water that only he could provide. And so Jesus took a road rarely traveled by Jews, entered Samaritan territory, and then waited at the well by himself for this thirsty woman. He went out of his way for her. vs.4-6 - "He had to go through Samaria. So He came to a town in Samaria called Sychar.....Jacob's well was there , and Jesus, tired as he was from the journey, sat down by the well."

When I read this and as I type this my eyes are filled with tears because I know that Jesus does this for me....everytime I am thirsty. He is the only one who can quench our thirst and satisfy our soul. So many times, even after I have experienced His life giving water I get busy, tired, overwhelmed, and in my humanness I pick up the old water jar and try and fill it with "typical water" that leaves me thirsty. I then start running in my own strength but as I get thirsty enough I see Him out of the corner of my eye......sitting there at the well......waiting for me. He gently reminds me that He is the only true "thirst quencher" and if I will trust Him He will fill me and satisfy me.

God unexpectedly waited for the Woman at the Well. He interrupted her daily routine, invaded her depressing existence to which she had grown very comfortable. Just as Christ unsettled the woman at the well by asking her for water, he often makes me unsure and anxious with the things he asks of me and the way his plans play out in my life. He rarely makes me comfortable.....but His encouters are always good.

Thirst does not kill; absence of water does that. Thirst drives us to remember, to live, and to seek life-giving water. So now I am grateful for thirst, painful though it may be, because it was thirst that first drove me to Jesus.

vs.13-14 - "Jesus answered, "Everyone who drinks this water will be thirsty again. but whoever drinks the water I give her will never thirst. Indeed, the water I give her will become in her a spring of water welling up to eternal life."

Which well will I draw water from to quench my daily thirst? What water source will I choose? I need to daily bring the water jar of my life to the well where Jesus sits waiting for me and allow Him to fill me from the source that will never run dry.....He is the only One who can quench my thirst. And He can do that for you!