"Are You Still Thirsty?"

John 4:13-14 Jesus answered and said to her, "Everyone who drinks of this water will thirst again; but whoever drinks of the water that I will give him shall never thirst; but the water that I will give him will become in him a well of water springing up to eternal life."

Last Sunday we concluded that God has created us as spiritual beings with souls that thirst for spiritual refreshment! That refreshment cannot be found in any created thing in this world. It is not found in any of the pleasures of this life that our flesh longs for apart from Christ. Those waters can never satisfy. You might enjoy the taste going down for a few moments, but the satisfaction is only temporary and in the end you’ll end up just as thirsty as you were before you drank—if not more!

That was certainly the experience of the Samaritan woman. She too had been created by God to enjoy a relationship with Him, but like the rest of us she wrongly aimed her affections toward fleshly pleasures in this world rather than toward spiritual pleasures in Christ. In her case, the fruitless pursuit was through sexual relationships. And, did those experiences satisfy her? No! Having had 5 husbands in the past and working on her 6th revealed that she had still not yet found the contentment and fulfillment she was seeking.

So, Jesus graciously confronted her with the reality that she would never find ultimate refreshment in those fleshly waters. There was only one place it could be found. What she needed was living water! She needed to drink the water of eternal life; she needed to experience the delights of fellowship and harmony with the living God. Those are the spiritual waters of which a person drinks and finds his soul’s thirst forever quenched!

My brothers and sisters, please reflect on this truth today and throughout the week. Remember that nothing in the creation can quench your soul’s thirst for the Creator. All the things we desire in this life apart from and more than Christ are part of a fleeting and fallen world. They are consumable; they are perishable; they are temporary; and they can never satisfy the longings of your soul. They always keep you coming back for more, and you’ll never get enough. In the words of the Lord through the prophet Jeremiah, they are “broken cisterns that can hold no water” (Jeremiah 2:13).

No amount of money, no material things, no experiences, no relationships, not even religion can quench the thirst of your soul. Only Jesus can with His living water! So, please set your heart on Him and long for the water He freely offers you. Cultivate in your heart the same yearning as the psalmist who said,

Psalm 42:1 As the deer pants for the water brooks, So my soul pants for You, O God. My soul thirsts for God, for the living God;

As you seek to be satisfied in Him, and as you drink of His living waters, you will find your heart’s thirst fully quenched and even overflowing with the blessings of eternal life!