But those who drink the water I give will never be thirsty again. John 4:14

She shifted uneasily and her water pail clanked against the stone well. Never thirst again? Was He crazy? He didn’t seem crazy, this tall, tanned Jew who shouldn’t even be seen talking with someone like her. He’d asked her for a drink and now He said He had water that would quench her thirst forever. Was He mocking her with riddles? Then He sliced her heart open with his next words: “Go get your husband.” How did He know? How could He know about that desperate thirst in her soul? She’d tried man after man, party after party, but her efforts had only increased the thirst. If only there was a way to satisfy this ache inside that nobody seemed to know about until Him. What did He mean about living water? She had to find out.

You’ve felt it too. Sometimes right in the middle of a crowd, when you should be happiest, it washes over you. Longing. Loneliness. You’re thirsty for a drink you’ve never tasted, but your restless search for something to quench it always ends in disappointment. You thought that last relationship would do it, but here you are… Like the woman at the well, you keeping going back to water that won’t satisfy. Jesus knows about that secret ache and He also knows that all the wells you’ve dipped into won’t satisfy it because the thirst is spiritual, not physical. There are some emotional needs that no other human being can satisfy because they were put there by God. Blaise Pascal wisely stated: “There is a God-shaped vacuum in the heart of each man which cannot be satisfied by any created thing but only by God the Creator, made know through Jesus Christ.”

Final Thought:  Total surrender to the lordship of Jesus Christ is the only way to fully satisfy a thirst you can’t define.

Prayer: Lord, I’ve tried to quench this thirst in so many ways. So many failures. I’m coming to see that no other human being can satisfy this thirst. When I try, I’m making them my god. I abandon myself to you now and trust you to fill me up.  Amen.