Thursday, February 6, 2014

Dehydrated

Have you ever been so thirsty, so dehydrated that you crave anything but that thing which your body needs most? Or the when you think you're hungry, but there's only one thing to satisfy that hunger...or is it thirst? You drink a soda, tea, milk, try some chocolate, crackers, cheese, and still there's no satisfaction. You need more. Something else. Water. 
Pour a glass, drink and drink until you think you're going to pop. 
Sometimes we can be in that same position spiritually. To be so hungry, so thirsty for God we don't recognize it for what it is. Perhaps you're not has happy as you used to be, and you need something to fill the gap. Maybe fellowship with women in the Church? More time with the spouse or kids? Join an outreach? A book by a Christian author should do the trick....but it doesn't, not quite. We know we need something, but in all our searching we bypass the very thing that will satisfy. Prayer and the Word of God. 
The leather bound book sits by your bed, untouched, collecting dust as the weeks pass. All the while God is waiting for you to pick it up, to call out to Him and He will fill your soul, quench your thirst. 
When did you stop reading? When did you think you had it all together and didn't need God every minute of every day? Or when were the rough times too hard for God to overcome if you would just ask? 
As thirsty as you are sometimes, it can be hard to pour that cup of water and drink. As burdened as your heart may be, it can be difficult to pick up the Bible, sit down and drink. 
Is it because of fear? Fear that the sins you know are present and have been trying to ignore, are going to be revealed and challenged? Fear that you cannot comfortably live with sin, even the tiniest one, when being fed by the Word? It will call you out. It will bring you to account for your sin, your actions, even if it's heart sin not and not outward. But that is as it should be. If we read the Bible and are not challenged and called to repentance by it, we are reading with callous hearts and deaf ears. The beauty of Christianity is repentance and forgiveness. We all stumble and fall. We all walk through the desert, the valley of darkness. When we repent and ask, God forgives and we become pure in His sight.
"You are all together beautiful, my love; there is no flaw in you." Song of Solemn 4:7
Jesus even compares Himself to water--living water. If we drink the life giving water we will never thirst again, He will satisfy. Come back to the well, drink, be filled, and live.