Hard, hot, and dry. So thirsty. My tongue clings to the roof of my mouth as I search for refreshing water. Where can my relief come? And as the ancients sought for water, mirages of refreshment, comfort, escape in the desert serve as imposters to me. Nothing else can satisfy my dying thirst. It is no longer my mouth crying out but this deep thirst come from the bowels of my heart and soul. Will anything satisfy? Will anything bring sustaining relief to me?
That cry came from the heart of the woman as she shamefully walked toward Jacob’s well in Sychar (John 4). And perhaps we, too, thirst like her. Where does our help come from?
For Israel as they wandered in the wilderness toward the Promise Land, their relief came. Psalm 78:15-16 paints a masterful picture for us, “He split the rocks in the wilderness, and gave them drink in abundance like the depths. He also brought streams out of the rock, and caused waters to run down like rivers.” Oh to not only cup our hands into that refreshing river to drink but to immerse ourselves in that flowing river and allow ourselves to melt away. A trickle, a palm full, a small glassful won’t do. “Behold, He struck the rock, so that the waters gushed out, and the streams overflowed…” Psalm 78:20.
This overflowing not only was literal water but God’s refreshing presence that will revitalize the most parched lands of our hearts, lives, families, ministries, and futures. But how can we find this confidence when all around is are Covid-19, government leaders wringing their hands while others demand changes that some perhaps are not the best or even advisable. Where does our help come from in healing from a disease, sickness, ailment diagnosed by a doctor with no end in sight? We grasp by fingertips on the steep cliffs of promises and feel our strength leaving us. Only one more thing will cause our grip to release and we will plummet to ruin—whether in marriage, singlehood, family, ministry, career, health, etc. We lament for days long ago (as it seems) of love, warmth, health, strength, vitality, victory, and security that were found. And perhaps we trusted too much in ourselves or in others. We only once bobbed up and down like a small toy in a bathtub of life, feeling only the small splashes of trouble. Now we feel the giant swells gain on us more often. Where does our relief come? Will I always be thirsty? Will I always be in want?
And then a hand reaches out to us—like the hand of Jesus toward Peter—and we find ourselves standing on the following promises of God. “Then the LORD will go forth and fight against those nations, as He fights in the day of battle. And in that day His feet will stand on the Mount of Olives…And the Mount of Olives shall be split in two…making a very large valley…Then you shall flee through My mountain valley…And in that day it shall be that living waters shall flow over Jerusalem…in both summer and winter it shall occur. And the LORD shall be King over all the earth. In that day it shall be—‘The LORD is one,’ and His name one,” Zechariah 14:3-5, 8-9 paraphrased. And just like Jesus encouraged that dear woman in Samaria (John 4), our refreshing will come. Even when the world seems to be in utter chaos and we are jerked around like a pair of jeans in a washing machine, we can know that perhaps now but certainly when it is all over, that our thirst will be fully quenched…And all turmoil, pain, sickness, persecution, tears, suffering, etc. will be over. “And he showed me a pure river of water of life, clear as crystal, proceeding from the throne of God and of the Lamb…And let him who thirsts come. Whoever desires, let him take the water of life freely,” Revelations 22:1 and 17.
Do we thirst? Come and thirst no more.