If Anyone Is Thirsty

The Cure for Spiritual Dehydration

I’ll never forget working at a summer camp in college. The heat was blistering, and I worked at the top of a water slide that sat directly in the mid-day sun. I vividly recall how desperately thirsty I felt during those scorching summer days. During my shift, I’d count down the minutes until a staff person patrolled the camp offering cold beverages. All I wanted was a big drink of cold water, yet it never failed, by the time the drink cart reached my post all was left was warm soda.  When you’re dying of thirst, soda doesn’t help. But in desperation, I would throw back a warm can of Dr Pepperand feel even more miserable afterward. What I actually needed was water! There is no substitute!

We all know the signs of physical dehydration—cracked lips, dry skin, exhaustion, and mental fog. But what about spiritual dehydration? Have you ever stopped to consider that your soul thirsts for God?

My soul thirsts for God, for the living God; When shall I come and appear before God? Psalm 42:2

Have you thought about the fact that you could be spiritually dehydrated?  The symptoms of spiritual dehydration manifest in our attitudes, anxieties, addictions, and assumptions. When our lives are marked by emptiness, negativity, toxicity, fears, and relationship drama, then we are in desperate need of Living Water.

Jesus offered an open invitation to us in John 7 to find life-giving, soul-filling, and thirst-quenching abundance in a relationship with Him.

On the last day of the feast, the great day, Jesus stood up and cried out, “If anyone thirsts, let him come to me and drink.  Whoever believes in me, as the Scripture has said, ‘Out of his heart will flow rivers of living water.’” Now this he said about the Spirit, whom those who believed in him were to receive, for as yet the Spirit had not been given, because Jesus was not yet glorified.   John 7:37-39

Jesus said, “If you believe, you will receive!” It is in believing in Jesus (not just merely knowing facts about Him) that our souls are filled to the uttermost with Living Water. Just as Dr. Pepper could not quench my physical thirst, the substitutes we try to put in God’s spot to quench our soul thirst never satisfy either. We may try to find life in relationships, shopping, substances, and success, but none of these will ever really satisfy if we aren’t filled by Jesus, the Living Water.

Join us for a new Bible Study by Marian Jordan Ellis on the Redeemed Girl App or YouTube Channel.

This month we launch a new teaching series called, Beautiful Name. In this Bible study, we explore the names of Christ revealed in Scripture. In this first episode, we discover Jesus, the Living Water and how we can drink freely from the river of life!

Watch today here or on the Redeemed Girl App or our YouTube Channel.