Thirsty?

Have you ever been thirsty?  I don’t mean a simple thirst but a thirst that drives you to find water.  The kind of thirst you would have after traveling in the desert.  I wonder how many of us have ever been that thirsty.  We have the convenience of water on demand.  It wasn’t always this convenient. 

Travel with me to a time when getting water was a large part of daily life.  In order to get water it required a walk outside the city gate into the wilderness with a bucket and a rope.  It was a strenuous event that had to occur every day in order to have water to drink.  It involved walking to the well, dropping your bucket in the hole and then pulling the now full bucket all the way up.  This bucket then had to be carried back to a house in the town.  This was a journey that was best undertaken in the cool of the day, which meant either morning or early evening.  Most of the women would make this journey to the well for the daily amount of water during these times.   

However, in John chapter four it tells us the story of one Samaritan woman that chose to travel to the well in the heat of the day.  It was about noon when she set out to get her daily amount of water.  The sun was in full throttle beating down unmercifully on anyone that was traveling.  Now we must stop and consider why would someone chose to get water in the heat of the day.  She was thirsty!  She was also a social outcast and probably chose to get her water when the other women were not around.  This meant a much harder time for her.  She was driven by her need for water, which was greater than the difficulty of getting the water.   

When she got there she had an encounter with Jesus.  There is much to look at in this passage but in this article I would like to look at the fact that the woman was driven by her thirst to make the daily trip to the well.  It was in the process of meeting her need that she encountered Jesus.    

My question for you is what are you thirsty for?  Your energy, time and focus will be spent on obtaining that which you thirst for in an attempt to quench your thirst.  Are you thirsting for more of Jesus?   I challenge you to examine your heart and ask the Lord to reveal to you what you are thirsting for.   

In Matthew 6:21 Jesus tells us, “For where you treasure in, there will your heart be also.”What is the driving force in your life?  Is your soul longing for spiritual things or carnal, earthly things?  Jesus offers living water.  In John 4:13-14 Jesus tells us, “Every one that drinketh of this water shall thirst again: but whosoever drinketh of the water that I shall give him shall never thirst; but the water that I shall give him shall become in him a well of water springing up unto eternal life.”

I pray that as we approach the end of this year and the beginning of a new year that each of you will experience a drink of the water that comes from Jesus.  This water can truly quench your thirst and give you eternal life.  Seek those things which are of eternal value far above those things which are not. 

By Angela M. Smuin, M.A.