The Ultimate Thirst Quencher

I have been thinking a lot lately about what Jesus meant when He said to the Samaritan woman that He talked to at that famous well scene.  One phrase in particular has kept coming back to my mind...more or less anyway.  Not the exact quote, but the idea that He shares in what He says.  This is what He says, "Everyone who drinks of this water will be thirsty again, but whoever drinks of the water that I will give him will never be thirsty again."  (John 4:13,14a ESV). 

Have you ever been really thirsty?  So thirsty that you would drink anything, to a reasonable degree, that you could find?  I don't think I know what it is like to be really, really thirsty, like to the point of death or something but I know that when I get thirsty I can feel a difference in my body and know that I need to rehydrate.  Often times I will be act like an idiot and reach for something that I know won't quench my thirst and will actually only make me more thirsty in the end, thus making my thirsting body worse off than it was before and never finding the satisfaction that it needs.  There is only one thing that will truly rehydrate my body and leave it feeling satisfied and that is water.

I find that it's pretty close to the same thing in our spiritual lives.  Often we do the exact same thing that the Samaritan woman did.  She was trying to find satisfaction for her soul, trying to fill up the longing, the thirst, with men.  She had been married many times and when Jesus talked with her was living with a man who was not her husband.  She was hoping the men, maybe the sex, the intimacy, the relationships would somehow fill her, but they didn't.  Sounds familiar, huh?  We may not do it the exact same way that the SamarItan woman did, but I fear we all do or at least have, tried to fill up the longing, the thirsting, in our souls with something other than the One thing which can truly satisfy us.  Think about it.  I know I have and still try to from time to time in my own life, but God has been showing me lately that Christ truly is the only thing that can satisfy the thirst in my soul.  That's what Jesus told the woman and the same is true for us today too.

The next time you sense your soul getting a little thirsty I would encourage you to spend some time with Christ and instead of doing something you know won't satisfy you (in fact will make you even feel worse than you already did) drink of the Living Water that will well up to eternal life within you.