Scott was gone to youth camp, I was home with a sick little girl. She’d had a stomach bug and still wasn’t 100%. She woke up one morning sobbing about how bad she felt. “Please, Mommy, just take me to the hospital. Please.” When your child, who has seen her Daddy in ICU, begs to be taken to the hospital because she feels so bad, you do it.
I loaded her up and called Scott from the car to tell him what we were doing. We got to the ER and within a few moments, my nine-year-old had an IV with a bag of fluids pouring into her. About halfway through that first bag, she started asking for popsicles which the nurses kept bringing – grape, orange, cherry, whatever she wanted. By the end of that first bag of fluids, her color was back and so was her cheerful personality.
She had completely dehydrated. But there was a simple solution.
Have you ever been dehydrated spiritually?
Worn out from the push and pull of life, overextended by the demands on time and energy?
We need that Living Water Jesus offered to the Samaritan woman at the well. Our souls thirst for the fullness of Christ in us. David speaks to this insatiable longing in Psalm 63:
O God, you are my God; earnestly I seek you;
My soul thirsts for you;
My flesh faints for you,
As in a dry and weary land where there is no water. (v. 1)
We thirst for Him. We were created to thirst for Him.
Desperate for His presence in our lives. Longing for His power in our circumstances. Pleading for His provision in our need.
And He, this God who sees us, He satisfies. Completely. Abundantly. Fully.
His love is steadfast. (v. 3)
His provision is certain. (v. 5)
His help is constant. (v. 7)
His protection sure. (v.9)
He upholds us with His mighty right hand. (v. 8)
And He reigns. (v. 11)
So often we languish in our deserts, wandering in a dryness that is not intended for us.
Just as my sweet girl needed to be hooked up to the IV and receive the fluids that would revive her body and restore her spirit, so we believers in the Living God need to be connected to the Word and the Word-Made-Flesh.
As we allow His living water to pour through our lives, we are revived in body, restored in spirit, and find our satisfaction – full and complete – in Him.
How have you found yourself wandering in that desert-place lately? What prompts you to run to Him when you are dry? Is this your first thought? How can you retrain your mind and your heart to live in the truth that His love is truly better than life?
It’s so easy for us to fill up on “junk food” and think we’re full, when we’re really starving ourselves of the nutrition we need. I want to learn more and more to let my first option to be to run to Christ instead of other things. He alone can satisfy for the long haul.
My prayer after being in Ps 63 this week is to painstakingly search for God, body and soul, with everything I have. I want to gratefully reflect upon him when I wake up at night, and worship him with my lips and my hands during the day.
I’m glad you listened to your to your daughter’s needs, Teri Lynne!
Lisa, I wish I could say I was always so quick to listen to the Father’s words in my life! I love your words: “I want to gratefully reflect on Him.” What a beautiful longing.
It’s amazing how we were *created* to thirst for Him. That longing for true filling is something so many (all?) people crave and only God satisfy.
And what love He shows by intending for us to be filled, rather than dry.
Psalm 63:3 kept getting to me this week. His steadfast love. Always available. To us! Why wouldn’t I praise Him? Wow.
Oh that steadfast love … if ever we could wrap our finite minds around that great gift, imagine what we’d lay down to live in reckless abandon for Him!
What a powerful illustration! As I read about your daughters color and cheerful personality returning once she was hydrated again, it showed me that when I do not spend adequate time drinking in the Living Water by being in the Word, I feel run down and and lack joy. But as soon as I get spiritually hydrated again from taking the time to drink in His Word, not just a few sips, it is then that I feel energized and my joyful once again. Thanks for such a great post!
Oh Brooke! I’m the same way … I know when that lack of joy hits that I’ve wandered in that desert place.
This psalm is one of my go-to power chapters. It gives life, breathing both power and comfort into my being. Verses 1,2 and 3 say it all!
Thanks for the yummy food. I can never get enough of God’s Word.
Blessings,
Kim
Kim, one of my favorite verses in all of Scripture is Psalm 63:3 – His love is better than life! Learning to live in that truth … it’s my daily prayer.