Change Your Drink of Choice

How many times have you lain down, stared at the ceiling, and wondered, "What am I doing?" or "Why am I here"? For me, that answer would be many times. I believe that everyone has a void in their life that they will try to fill. Sometimes that void filler may be work, or it could be alcohol, or it could be friends. It could be as simple as a significant other or more knowledge, or as complex as drugs or pornography.

"Death and destruction are never satisfied, and neither are human eyes" (Proverbs 27:20, NIV).

Mankind is deeply thirsty for more and is truly never satisfied. This is a recurring theme we see throughout life. The rich want to become richer. The intellectuals want to constantly learn more. Not that there is something wrong with aspiring for more, but where does aspiring end and contentment begin?

"7 When a Samaritan woman came to draw water, Jesus said to her, 'Will you give me a drink?'

8 (His disciples had gone into the town to buy food.)

9 The Samaritan woman said to him, 'You are a Jew and I am a Samaritan woman. How can you ask me for a drink?' (For Jews do not associate with Samaritans.)

10 Jesus answered her, 'If you knew the gift of God and who it is that asks you for a drink, you would have asked him and he would have given you living water.'

11 “Sir,” the woman said, 'you have nothing to draw with and the well is deep. Where can you get this living water?

12 Are you greater than our father Jacob, who gave us the well and drank from it himself, as did also his sons and his livestock?'

13 Jesus answered, 'Everyone who drinks this water will be thirsty again,

14 but whoever drinks the water I give them will never thirst. Indeed, the water I give them will become in them a spring of water welling up to eternal life.”

15 The woman said to him, 'Sir, give me this water so that I won’t get thirsty and have to keep coming here to draw water'" (John 4:7-15, NIV).

Jesus illustrates a few things in this passage. First, he draws attention to the deep thirst that mankind has, not just physical. Then, Jesus says he has a gift that will not leave us thirsty for more. Jesus tells us later in John what this gift is, but the intent behind this scripture is already captured in three Old Testament scriptures.

Isaiah 12:2-3 highlights the well of salvation.

Isaiah 44:3-4 describes how God will pour water on thirsty land and his Spirit out on his people (Connection to Psalm 63:1). Physical thirst, like spiritual thirst, is a keenly felt need, and if not quenched, it can lead to death.

Isaiah 58:11 explains that the Lord will satisfy our needs. This is the point Jesus is making when he speaks with the Samaritan woman. It is only God who satisfies.

"37 On the last and greatest day of the festival, Jesus stood and said in a loud voice, 'Let anyone who is thirsty come to me and drink. 38 Whoever believes in me, as Scripture has said, rivers of living water will flow from within them'" (John 7:37-38, NIV).

Like water, God is good on his own. You do not need more to quench the thirst that you have in your life for more. We do not need to go to everything else to satisfy our needs when God is asking us to come as we are to have a relationship with him and have contentment in him.