Quenching Your Thirst

The first time I ever remember being really thirsty is still clearly etched in my mind. I was a young boy, and I had been playing a little league baseball game. I was absolutely parched after the game, so my dad gave me enough money to buy a soft drink at the concession stand. When I got to the stand, I noticed how good the chocolate caramel candy looked, so I used the money I had to buy candy instead of a soft drink.

On the way home, I got an unwelcome surprise. Not only was my mouth dry, but it was stuck together from my lips to my throat. I thought I would surely die before I got home. I couldn’t even swallow. Can you imagine how good that water tasted when I got to it? I considered how before that, I thought water was tasteless, but it surely tasted sweet on that particular evening.

You can’t quench thirst with candy; I learned that the hard way. But we as people also have a spiritual type of thirst. Specifically, we crave a personal relationshipwith God, and no substitute will quench that thirst. This need is a craving more deep than physical thirst, although we often don’t recognize it as such.

In John 4, Jesus met a woman with this spiritual longing for God. We find that she had tried to substitute other things to quench it, like several relationships with men and religion. It hadn’t worked. Jesus told this woman that he had the solution to her deepest longings, which included her thirst for personal relationship with God.  She responded, and her life was forever changed.

As people, we often substitute many things in an attempt to fill that void that we all experience. It may be relationships, overeating, drugs, workaholism – you name it. But only a personal relationship with God can fill that void.

Chocolate caramel candy doesn’t quench thirst; only water does. Likewise, nothing else fills our deepest spiritual longings except communion with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. Jesus accomplished all that was needed for people to enjoy endless, perfect, unbroken fellowship with God because of what we celebrated last week during Holy Week: Jesus’ death on the cross to endure the judgment we deserved so we could be declared fully forgiven and righteous before God, his resurrection in power to confirm all he is and all he accomplished, and his ascension to serve as our constant advocate in the heavenly places. Eternal life and adoption into God’s family forever are God’s gifts through Christ, and that personal family relationship with God is the only thing that will truly quench our spiritual thirst.

May we drink freely and enjoy, because of God’s immeasurable gift in Christ.

Yours in Christ,

Chris Heinss