Are You Hungry and Thirsty?

 

 

Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be satisfied.
Matthew 5:6 ESV 

When Jesus shouted in the Gospels, He was doing a rare and emphatic thing  John 7:28 and 12:44. By interrupting a major feast day at the temple in Jerusalem and shouting to the crowds gathered there, Jesus showed how deeply he felt about the importance of His message, “If you are thirsty, come to me!” So coming to Him to drink from the river of the Holy Spirit was critically important to Jesus and is essential for us to understand.

We can’t survive spiritually without the Spirit’s flow of living waters in our lives. The river of God flows in and out of the lives of believers from the giver of the Holy Spirit, Jesus Christ. Every river has headwaters at its source. Where might we find the headwaters of God’s river?

Jesus was filled and overflowing with the Spirit of God. “For he is sent by God. He speaks God’s words, for God’s spirit is upon him without measure or limit” John 3:34. And that same limitless Spirit fills and overflows you with His power and presence.

But we can become dry and thirsty in our lives if we somehow get cut off from the river of God. The spring of His Spirit perpetually flows from the throne of God into our hearts. The flow of the Holy Spirit into our lives is increased or decreased by turning on certain Holy Spirit “faucets” to their maximum level.

It is up to you to control the volume of the power and blessing of His Spirit that springs from your heart into every aspect of your life. Some of the faucets that will increase the flow of His perpetual spring within you are: bible study, prayer, praise and worship, serving, giving and witnessing.

Have you ever been on a long road trip and become very dry and thirsty? Then a road sign suddenly announced an upcoming place that had refreshments! And before you ever arrived at the place of refreshing you could almost taste a cold drink.

The wilderness of sin produces parching dryness and unquenchable thirst in us for which there is no refreshment, except the Holy Spirit.

Remember, God desires to flood every area of our lives with the river of His Spirit. His river brings healing and power into our lives. What are you hungry and thirsty for from God’s Spirit? Bread represents the living Word of God. Water represents the river of His Spirit.

Hunger and thirst on our part don’t indicate a lack of willingness to give on God’s part. But they do indicate a deep and abiding need within us that can never be fully satisfied. When we become satisfied with the river of God, we become stale and religious in our spiritual walk. When we become satisfied with the river of God, we become stagnant and comfortably pious in our desire to grow spiritually.

Lack of hunger and thirst for more of God within us produces hypocrisy. Hypocrites go through the motions of religious ritual without having an abiding, deep intimacy with the Holy Spirit 2Tim. 3:1-9.

Everything in this world eventually runs out. But there is a fountain that never runs dry. Drink deep.

 

Today’s Bible Reading:

1 Sam 14; Acts 10; Psalm 124