The Thirsty

Water has always been a precious natural resource. Whenever a severe hurricane or earthquake strikes, cutting off the effected area's power supply, one of the first calls for help is for water.

All plant and animal life depend on water for their daily sustenance. Where there is no water there is no life. One can travel for hundreds of miles through desert wasteland without a sign of life because of the absence of water; when the signs of life appear, there is sure to be the presence of water.

Water is used in the Scriptures as a symbol of the essential life-giving sustenance of God. Jesus said that he himself was the source and fountainhead of spiritual life: "I am the water of life." Without Christ we live in a desert; with Christ we enjoy an eternal oasis.

Some of God's final words of written revelation are in the form of an invitation—an invitation offered to the thirsty and desiring: "And let the one who is thirsty come; let the one who desires take the water of life without price" (Rev. 22:17). Here, "desires" is used to underscore with intensity the appetite of "the one who is thirsty." Both "thirsty " and "desires" are present participles, which should culminate in deliberate, decisive action—"take" (aorist tense).

Spiritual thirst and desire are Spirit-induced, not self-induced. Spiritual desire comes from God and must be acted upon with a decisive will, empowered by grace. Where spiritual desire fails to be acted upon, our spirit is left depleted and unfulfilled. When our desire for God finds its satisfaction in him—taking the water of life—our spirit is refreshed, renewed, and satisfied.

The Lord Jesus is both the source and object of such thirst. We drink from him—and are satisfied. He is our salvation—we are satisfied; he is our life—we keep on drinking. "To have found God and still to pursue Him is the soul's paradox of love," observed A. W. Tozer. Every God-thirsty Christian is a witness to such reality.

In the classic words of Bernard of Clairvaux (1090-1153):

We taste Thee, O Thou Living Bread,
  And long to feast upon Thee still:
We drink of Thee, the Fountainhead
  And thirst our souls from Thee to fill.