DAD'S RAMBLINGS -- SATISFYING THE LONGING

DAD'S RAMBLINGS -- SATISFYING THE LONGING OF OUR HEARTS

"On the last day, that great day of the feast, Jesus stood and cried out, saying, 'If anyone thirsts, let him come to Me and drink. He who believes in Me, as the Scriptures has said, out of his heart will flow rivers of living water.' But this He spoke concerning the Spirit, whom those believing in Him would receive; for the Holy Spirit was not yet given, because Jesus was not yet glorified." (John 7:37-39)

My mind is immediately drawn back to the time when Jesus visited the woman at the well in John 4. The woman had come to draw water for her daily use, and there was Jesus, sitting at the well. She had come to quench her physical thirst, but Jesus knew the deeper thirst of her heart. She had an unquenchable craving for belonging, for acceptance, for fulfillment, for meaning in life that could not be satisfied as evidenced by going from husband to husband. None of them could meet her needs and she kept looking. Maybe she found that marriage was not the answer to her longings, so she just shacked up with her sixth man.

Doesn't that sound like a lot of people you know? They have a longing in their hearts for something that they just can't quite satisfy, so they turn to other things trying to quench that gnawing thirst.

Jesus said that He would give water to quench that thirst – water that would be a fountain springing up in their innermost being that would bring everlasting life John 4:14). And out of that fountain would flow rivers of living water.

God gives this invitation: "Ho, everyone who thirsts, come to the waters" (Isaiah 55:1). He has given us the Holy Spirit to satisfy the thirsty heart.

I have to ask myself the question: What is flowing out of my life? Is it a fountain of joy and peace? Or is it discontentment because I have not found that true sense of satisfaction in life?

Only Jesus can satisfy the soul. We may look to other things to quench that thirst, but only the Holy Spirit – the Spirit of Christ – can fill that void.

Love, Dad