Thirsty?
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All men are like grass,
and all their glory is like the flowers of the field. The grass withers and the flowers fall, because the breath of the Lord blows on them. Surely the people are grass. The grass withers and the flowers fall, but the word of our God stands forever. - Isa 40.6-8 |
One day, a woman stopped by her favorite spot to get her usual beverage like she did every day. While there, she ran into a man who asked her for a drink. But then he offered her a different kind of drink – a kind that would truly satisfy, unlike the type she returned for each day. As if he’d known her forever, he pointed out that she had been trying to find spiritual satisfaction in the wrong things. And just like she had to keep coming back to fulfill her physical thirst, these other things had not truly fulfilled her spiritual thirst – she had come up dry time & again. In her case, he explained she had tried to satisfy her spiritual thirst with relationships & when one failed, she moved to another.
That man was Jesus & this account can be found in John 4.4-26. What did He offer her? Living Water. What is the Living Water? It’s Him. |
Only Jesus Christ can truly fulfill what your soul really needs. Only He can provide the spiritual life that is lacking. Anything else will only be topical & temporary. Our souls become dried & dirtied by sin – violation of God’s moral law & character (1 Jn 3.4). We are all guilty in some fashion & deserve God’s just wrath (Jn 3.36, 1 Jn 1.8, Jas 2.10). Our sin cuts us off from God who is our spiritual life source (Isa 59.2, Eph 2.1-3). And since we are spiritually dead, only God can restore this spiritual life.
With physical thirst, we must acknowledge we are thirsty, locate a water source & drink it down. The same is with spiritual thirst. We acknowledge our spiritual thirst by admitting to God that we’ve sinned against Him & are in need of the spiritual life He alone can provide. Since we’ve located the source of Living Water, we drink it down. We do this when we trust that Jesus died in our place & trust He alone is able to qualify us for heaven. Jesus can do this because when He died on the cross, He satisfied God’s justice & took the judgment for the sins of those who believe. And He was also sinless – the pure Living Water – so He can give us His perfect status before God.
For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him. Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe stands condemned already because he has not believed in the name of God’s one and only Son. – Jesus in Jn 3.16-18
When we do this, God says He’ll wash away our sins. He'll make us pure in His sight & give us everlasting life (Jn 17.3, 1 Pt 3.18). Though we will still sin, He will always be there to forgive us because we’re trusting in Him. Have your sins been washed away? Do you have eternal life? Get the Living Water!
With physical thirst, we must acknowledge we are thirsty, locate a water source & drink it down. The same is with spiritual thirst. We acknowledge our spiritual thirst by admitting to God that we’ve sinned against Him & are in need of the spiritual life He alone can provide. Since we’ve located the source of Living Water, we drink it down. We do this when we trust that Jesus died in our place & trust He alone is able to qualify us for heaven. Jesus can do this because when He died on the cross, He satisfied God’s justice & took the judgment for the sins of those who believe. And He was also sinless – the pure Living Water – so He can give us His perfect status before God.
For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him. Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe stands condemned already because he has not believed in the name of God’s one and only Son. – Jesus in Jn 3.16-18
When we do this, God says He’ll wash away our sins. He'll make us pure in His sight & give us everlasting life (Jn 17.3, 1 Pt 3.18). Though we will still sin, He will always be there to forgive us because we’re trusting in Him. Have your sins been washed away? Do you have eternal life? Get the Living Water!
Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy and my burden is light. – Jesus in Mt 11.28-30
When you were dead in your sins and in the uncircumcision of your sinful nature, God made you alive with Christ. He forgave us all our sins, having canceled the written code, with its regulations, that was against us and that stood opposed to us; he took it away, nailing it to the cross. And having disarmed the powers and authorities, he made a public spectacle of them, triumphing over them by the cross. – Col 2.13-15
When you were dead in your sins and in the uncircumcision of your sinful nature, God made you alive with Christ. He forgave us all our sins, having canceled the written code, with its regulations, that was against us and that stood opposed to us; he took it away, nailing it to the cross. And having disarmed the powers and authorities, he made a public spectacle of them, triumphing over them by the cross. – Col 2.13-15
Have mercy on me, O God,
according to your unfailing love; according to your great compassion blot out my transgressions. Wash away all my iniquity and cleanse me from my sin. – Ps 51.1-2 Related Pages
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O God, you are my God,
earnestly I seek you; my soul thirsts for you, my body longs for you, in a dry and weary land where there is no water. – Ps 63.1 If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness. - 1 Jn 1.9 |