Quenching the Thirst
And the Spirit and the bride say, ‘Come!’ And let him who hears say, ‘Come!’ And let him who thirsts come. Whoever desires, let him take the water of life freely. – Revelation 22:17.
To quench our thirst we drink water. We know what that is like. But what if you are on a lifeboat in the middle of the ocean and there is no water but seawater? If you were to drink of the seawater what would happen? Your thirst would not be quenched and your thirst would only be magnified. Most likely you would die because of the salt in the seawater which would act to dehydrate your body. So, even though the seawater is tempting to a man dying from lack of water it would be foolish and dangerous for him to drink of it.
The Bible when it speaks of thirst is speaking of a spiritual thirst. We could think of it as a lust that we have for something or a desire that we have for something. There are many things that our flesh desires and the world claims it can satisfy those desires with a variety of things. We seek to satisfy our lust, desires, thirst through sexual immorality, through alcohol or drugs, or through the amassing of money and power. Those things in our lives act in the same way that seawater does for someone dying of thirst. They only make us thirstier and drain us of more life.
God designed each of us for Him. There is a place in each of our lives that only God can fill. That is what we are really thirsting after. We are thirsting after God. We try to fill this place in our lives with all of those other things but they only make things worse. God is the only One who can satisfy our thirst, who can give us life. Come to Him and drink of the “water of life” freely.
(God designed each of us for Him. There is a place in each of our lives that only God can fill. That is what we are really thirsting after.)