Spiritually Thirsty

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Have you ever accidentally dehydrated yourself? I’m going to answer my own question and say, “Oh boy have I!” So many times in a day I’ve thought, Wow, I should really get some water. But I don’t stop what I’m doing and drink some. Hours (or even an entire day) go by, and I wonder why I feel tired and just ick. Then I remember that I never got any water! Why on earth did I do that?!? I wonder. I know I need water to live, and yet I have to convince myself to drink some. Our water tastes good! I can add ice if I feel like it, or tasty essential oils. I have my own water bottle and even a spot for it on the kitchen counter (if you have a big family or even just way too many cups out at a time, a special spot on the counter for each person is really helpful!). Yet I opt to be dehydrated and unhealthy.

This is a lot like my time with God. I have a beautiful study Bible that sits next to my bed which is not read hardly enough. I have a God who loves me more deeply and passionately than any other being has or ever could, who wants to be my best friend and desires to have a relationship with me. He’s always ready and available to talk to me. And yet I have pushed Him aside and pursued things that will not grow me, and things that do not encourage my relationship with God. I am left dry and lonely and feeling sick.

A few weeks back I had a dry season like this. Instead of talking with God and spending time in His Word, I chose to spend quiet times doing invaluable and unprofitable things. All the while with a nudging in my heart to spend time with God. “I’ll do it later,” I told myself. “Later” wouldn’t happen, and I found myself over a week behind in my Bible reading plan and depressed about everything, from loneliness to my dog going blind. God felt distant. I cried out to Him with tears, mourning a sickness in my relationship with my best Friend. “Why can’t I feel you, God?” I asked. I truly realized how important communication with God is in my life. Had He severed the ties between us? No, but I had chosen to ignore them out of utterly sinful and selfish laziness. I was spirituality dehydrated, and it’s not something that I ever want to be again. In John chapter 4, we are told about an encounter between a Samaritan woman and Jesus. Jesus tells the woman:

“… Whoever drinks of the water that I shall give him will never thirst. But the water that I shall give him will become in him a fountain of water springing up into everlasting life.” (John 4:14 NKJV) 

In John chapter 7, Jesus says:

“If anyone thirst, let him come to me and drink. He who believes in me, as the Scripture has said, out of his heart will flow rivers of living water.” (John 7:37-38 NKJV) 

In Revelation chapter 21 God says:

“I will give of the fountain of the water of life freely to him who thirsts.” (Revelation 21:6 NKJV) 

I confessed my sin to my Heavenly Father, asking for Him to heal me and to draw me close to Him and allow me to grow in Him by overflowing me with truly life-giving water. I made a decision to pursue God whole heartedly and excitedly, not making my time with Him a tedious chore to check off my list of to-dos, but more like what I would think of as getting to know a husband or potential husband better and better (I’m praying that I’ll actually know what that’s like someday!), but on a much greater scale. I’ve failed already, and I know I’ll fail again, but I’m praying that I’ll never make myself spiritually dehydrated again.

Have you ever been “spiritually dehydrated”? Did it change the way you communicate with God? Leave a comment, I love hearing from my readers!