In preparation for Hurricane Irma in 2017, my wife and I went to try and find a supply of bottled water. She went to one Walmart location, and I went to another. Both of us came up empty. In the location I visited, not one case or gallon of water existed. After leaving Walmart, I went to two other stores—same situation.
It surprised me to see how quickly the water supplies left the local store shelves. I live in Georgia, and at the time, the hurricane had not yet reached the United States. Furthermore, based on the weather models at the time, the hurricane was expected to make landfall in the state of Florida.
But I understand the anxiety. Water is not an option but a must. We can go weeks without food but only days without water. And no matter how much water we drink today, we will thirst for water again tomorrow.
But in addition to drinking water, we need another kind of water to quench our spiritual thirst. We need the living water that only Christ can give us.
Jesus spoke about this living water with the Samaritan woman He met at the well. As for the water she came to draw from the well, Jesus says, “Everyone who drinks of this water will thirst again; but whoever drinks of the water that I will give him shall never thirst…” (John 4:13b-14a. NASB).
Our Innate Spiritual Thirst
As a result of the fall of man in the Garden of Eden, every one of us was born spiritually dry. Unbelievers can’t grasp the mystery of the problem. They just know that deep within them something is missing. They may try many things in life hoping to satisfy their spiritual void, but it will all be to no avail. Only Christ can satisfy our innate spiritual thirst.
When Jesus gives us living water, we will never thirst again. Our natural thirst won’t go away. We will still need drinking water for our body daily. But our spirit will never thirst again. That sense of something being missing within us becomes a thing of the past.
How to Receive Living Water
But how do we receive the water that Jesus gives? On the last day, while at a Jewish feast, He extended this invitation to those present:
“If any man thirst, let him come unto me, and drink. He that believeth on me, as the scripture hath said, out of his belly shall flow rivers of living water.”
John 7:37-38, KJV
We are not left to try and figure out what Jesus meant by these words. John the writer explains what Jesus was talking about. He writes, “This spake he of the Spirit, which they that believe on him should receive: for the Holy Ghost was not yet given; because that Jesus was not yet glorified” (verse 39).
Therefore, we conclude that the living water whereby Jesus quenches our spiritual thirst comes by way of the Holy Spirit when we believe on Jesus. We will never thirst again because the Holy Spirit remains in us, satisfying our spiritual thirst forever.
Copyright © 2023 by Frank King. All rights reserved.