Thirsting for Him

O God, you are my God,

earnestly I seek you;

my soul thirsts for you,

my body longs for you,

in a dry and weary land

where there is no water.

Psalm 63:1

Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they will be filled.

Matthew 5:6

Jesus answered, "Everyone who drinks this water will be thirsty again, but whoever drinks the water I give him will never thirst. Indeed, the water I give him will become in him a spring of water welling up to eternal life."

John 4:13-14

We don't really recognize our need for something until we have to go without. It is not until we're stuck with a car that won't start that we realize jumper cables are a good thing to keep in the trunk. We think that we can do without stretching before a work-out just this once -- until we pull a muscle and have to limp the next few weeks. And we don't think about being thirsty until we find ourselves in a dry and weary land.

How often do we hear our parents, or perhaps our doctor, encouraging us to drink more water? And yet, how hard is it to remember to consistently drink those 6-8 glasses a day? If we don't make drinking that much water every day a habit, we'll never get as much as we need. And actually, it may be one of those things we don't notice. . . the day-to-day lives we lead might not seem to suffer much from lack of water. But if we stop and consider the long-term ways water is needed in our bodies (kidney function, metabolism, temperature regulation, etc.), we will realize that water is a "must."

God is too. Our souls need a huge daily dose of Him to live. And hey, maybe, like water, we might not notice it if we go without getting enough of Him for a few days or weeks. A little here and there, something slipped into a conversation, may seem like enough. But when we reach that dry and barren land, we'll start to notice our dehydration pretty quickly. Thankfully, God is always near to us. Even in the driest of droughts, He can be found. Our job is to earnestly and daily seek Him. Even when we don't see a need for this daily dose of Him because we can't feel the effects right away, we have to continue to drink of His ways, remembering that we are in it not only for the short-term, but the long haul.

God, I haven't been doing a good job of regularly replenishing my supply of You. I need to learn that one huge dose of you isn't enough to last a lifetime. I'm not a camel Lord, and I can't just store up for the moments I feel faint - I need You each and every day. May I begin to truly see my continual need for you, and respond by earnestly seeking You and the Living Water You offer me. Thank you for always being there with open arms - forgiving the times I fail, and holding me up to keep on each day.

~Becky Girl