Thirsty?

When things converge in a delightful way, most people call it coincidence. For those of us who know God, we see His divine providence at work.

I’m continually praying for my children, which is one item of the five that converge this morning. The second is reading the prayer of Daniel in Daniel 9:3ff which is how I have been praying lately. The third is that I have been wondering if God is listening, yet filled with the sense that my only appeal is in His mercy. The fourth is last week’s evidence of answered prayer for one of them, which was a great encouragement. Now today, my devotional guide takes me to Isaiah 44:3, which says, “For I will pour water on him who is thirsty, and floods on the dry ground; I will pour My Spirit on your descendants, and My blessing on your offspring.”

That is one blessing for today—the reminder that God is hearing my prayers and He will pour out His Spirit on my family. Every time I read this passage from Isaiah, I am surprised by the blessing in it. My heart rejoices that God knows the heart of a mother that cares about the spiritual well-being of her family.

However, the reading for today offers another blessing. It focuses on being thirsty for God and the author writes that this does not happen to those who are spiritually dead. The unsaved person desires God about the same way a corpse wants a drink of water. This spiritual thirst is for those who have been made alive, those upon whom God has poured out His Spirit.

Some of my family knows Christ. Some do not. All of them have heard of Him. All have seen Him in creation. The starry sky, roaring sea, and bountiful earth declare Him. All have read of Him in the Bible and learned about Him in either church or Sunday school at some point in their lives, but I cannot see evidence of this thirst to which Isaiah refers. It may be there, but I’m not aware of it.

Of course there are many obstacles to feeling thirst. The author of my devotional says that before God gave him new life in Christ, he “loved the world too dearly to look to Him who made it, and myself too warmly and affectionately to seek Him who would bid me crucify and mortify it.”

That is the rub. The world is lovely. The things of the world (selfish desires, pride, stuff, etc.) can look lovely too, and it is this, not the starry skies, that keep us from thirsting after God. That thirst for bigger, better, and more does it. That is why, for some, God must take away worldly things before a soul begins to thirst after Him.

The other thing that can be an obstacle to trusting God is the threat of loss. The old nature and all that it wants must be denied. Without knowing the blessedness of living with a new nature, this is terribly frightening. Will God rob me of everything I enjoy? Will He send me to the mission field? Will I have to give up all my friends?

The psalmist knew that God gives far more. That is why he wrote, “As the deer pants for the water brooks, so pants my soul for You, O God. My soul thirsts for God, for the living God. When shall I come and appear before God? My tears have been my food day and night, while they continually say to me, ‘Where is your God?’” (Psalm 42:1-3). The remainder of the psalm indicates that he felt that God had abandoned him, hence his strong desire or thirst.

Only someone who has known the taste of clear, cool water longs for it. Only someone who knows the fellowship and power of God misses it when He seems absent. Those who don’t know God have no thirst. Only the Spirit of God can generate it in our barren hearts.

To those who sense this need, Jesus gives an invitation and a promise. He says, “If anyone thirsts, let him come to Me and drink” (John 7:37). He also said, “Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be filled” (Matthew 5:6). When someone thirsts for God, Proverbs 10:24 also promises that, “The desire of the righteous shall be granted.”

As I pray today, I must first allow myself to feel that emptiness and thirst for God, not try to fill it with other things. Then, as He satisfies me, I will continue to pray that He pours out His Spirit and gives that same godly thirst to those who are oblivious to their need for Him.