The Thirst of our Souls

The Bible is filled with great word pictures to describe our need for God. One of them is built right into our biology. Have you ever considered your body's natural trigger that drives you to drink? Not an intoxicating drink to numb your pain – a thirst that reminds you that you need to hydrate…or die.

In John 4, we read that Jesus begins a conversation with a thirsty woman at a watering hole. He quickly used her physical thirst to surface a spiritual thirst in her that only he could quench. Next thing you know, he is talking to her about her relationship status. Jesus knew she had been bouncing from relationship to relationship in an attempt to quench the thirst of her soul. That’s why when she asked him for living water, he said, “Go call your husband first,” But she had no husband. Only five former lovers that left her disappointed, dissatisfied, and thirsty for more. Before he could quench the thirst of her soul, she would have to identify and empty the artificial substitutes she had been drinking from.  

You sense it too, don’t you? The thirst that seems never to be quenched by anything this world has to offer? That desire to be valued and appreciated? That longing to be treasured and loved? That emptiness and disappointment after we have consumed the best of this world’s entertainment and pleasures, but leaves us thirsty for more? 

All of those desires are actually our soul’s way of telling us we need to drink deeply from the living water that only Jesus can provide. 

Where to run when you are thirsty? Relationships, career, recreation, entertainment, food, drink? They will never quench your thirst. There is nothing necessarily sinful about enjoying these pleasures. But sin is the result of trying to quench a God-given thirst in a God-forbidden way. 

I remember hearing Louie Giglio saying this about our thirsty souls: “We have an ocean-sized cavern of need barely moistened by the trickle of a thousand earthly streams. 

C.S. Lewis put it this way, “If I find in myself a desire which no experience in this world can satisfy, the most probable explanation is that I was made for another world. 

Mark it down. Our thirst will either drive us to God or it will drive us insane. 

Psalm 63:1  says, “O God, you are my God; earnestly I seek you; my soul thirsts for you; my flesh faints for you, as in a dry and weary land where there is no water.”

Do you want to have your thirst quenched? First, admit you live in a dry and weary land where nothing ultimately satisfies. Second, like the woman at the well, identify and forsake the artificial substitute you have been running to. Then, drink deeply and daily of the soul-satisfying greatness of Jesus. 

The woman at the well asked Jesus a pivotal question that we all eventually must ask and answer. She asked, “Are you greater than our Father Jacob, who gave us this well to drink from?” That is the ultimate question. Do we believe Jesus is greater? Greater than anything else we could drink from to quench the thirst of our souls? Sadly, some don’t believe Jesus is greater. But Jesus offers a thirst-quenching satisfaction that never disappoints. 

In the physical realm, the more water you drink, the less you want. But living water works differently. The more you drink of the living water Jesus provides, the more you want. With every disappointing gulp of this world, we come running back to Jesus for more. And He never runs out. 

“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. The water that I will give him will become in him a spring of water welling up to eternal life.” (John 4:13-14)