Be Thirsty

The vernacular of our day is interesting to me, and the words we use to refer to others have been on my mind of late, specifically this idea of "thirsty" ladies and gentlemen.

I deliberately choose the terms ladies and gentlemen here because I am a firm believer that people will rise to the expectations set before them. If you set a low expectation with the mindset that you will never be disappointed (or worse, that others are not worthy of a higher benchmark) you not only reduce humanity to your broken standards, that's when you start playing God through judgment. I digress.

This "thirst," as it is referred, describes individuals who clamor for the attention and affection of members of the opposite sex (or come to think of it, same-sex attraction, as well). "Being thirsty" is a negative connotation. It means you're trying too hard, you're oblivious or you choose to ignore the fact that the person to whom you are attracted doesn't share the same feelings for you. “Being thirsty” is a turn-off.

I'm going to go against the grain here and say something unpopular: we should be thirsty.

Now I'm going to get all Christiany on you. We should be thirsty for God.

Though God certainly is not oblivious to our efforts nor does He ignore us, we should clamor for His affection in ways that are unprecedented.**

Physiologically, thirst renders people in a state where their bodies need liquid replenishment. Research suggests that we can live up 40 days without food, but only 3-5 days without water. When we become thirsty and fail to replenish our systems, we begin to go through stages of dehydration. Dehydration can lead to severe health conditions and eventually death if untreated.

I think there are a lot of spiritually dehydrated people walking around. When we try to live life on our own terms without surrendering control or seeking guidance from the Lord (thirst), we deplete our resources and our existence is maintained in a dehydrated state. We are unable to function at normal capacity, and we are certainly at risk if we overexert ourselves.

Physically, when we ignore the signals of our bodies we can become so thirsty that we are driven to drink anything. This is a most dangerous state of living. We can actually end up ingesting poison, such as in the form of cleaning solutions or other toxic liquids, just to alleviate the symptoms of advanced dehydration that come from the neglect to replenish.

Similarly in the Christian faith, our broken conditions often influence us to make the choice to fill our lives with any and everything, just to assuage the pain we are experiencing. Any and everything except God. In much the same way, this is poisonous to our souls. And make no mistake -- it is certainly our choice to make.

How our brain signals our body to drink when we are thirsty, the Holy Spirit signals our souls to fill up on the living water that God provides. Regularly resting in the Word, seeking God’s face, living His truth, letting His love flow through us to bless others -- these are ways to replenish our thirsty souls, alleviating the unpleasant symptoms that come from the sickness in this world.

"For I will pour out water to quench your thirst and to irrigate your parched fields."

Isaiah 44:3a

The same promise the Lord gave to Jacob is extended to us, as well. 

 
He will pour out water. He will quench our thirst. He will relieve our dried up, desiccated, dehydrated souls. And He will do this by saturating us with His love. But we can’t receive that if we are already full of something else.

Let’s be thirsty. Let’s be thirsty for the only One who can truly satisfy us, so we can be filled.




**To be sure, it is not our efforts that make God more pleased or less pleased with us. The Bible tells us that faith without works is pointless (James 2:14-26) and also that it is only by God’s grace through our faith that we are saved (Ephesians 2:8-9). Don’t mistake this to mean that you are more saved or less saved by the amount of prayer, service or tithing in your life. This is not an either/or, it's a both/and. It all comes down to the condition of your heart and your relationship with Christ. 

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let Your eyes be open

My friend and cubicle-mate has been gracious enough to let me check out some of her Bible study materials for the College Ministry. Going through this Nehemiah book study, I was immediately struck by two concepts in just the first day's reading.

My heart was captured and my mind focused first from Nehemiah's response to the news of Jerusalem's destruction in Chapter 1.

"When I heard these words, I sat down and wept. I mourned for a number of days, fasting and praying before the God of heaven."

Nehemiah 1:4, HCSB

 

Nehemiah sat down and wept. He stopped what he was doing and allowed himself to feel despair, letting his emotions take over appropriately. Nehemiah was not concerned with hiding his feelings in light of his status as cupbearer to the king, rather his concern rested in those who were hurting, lost, and impacted by the destruction of a sacred city.  

Nehemiah didn't just stay in that place of darkness, though. He turned straight to God. He didn't ask his brother, who delivered the news, what could be done. Nehemiah set himself right before the Lord and then went to Him in prayer.

Too often I feel that we sweep important things under the rug and we go about our day for the sake of productivity with an "out of sight, out of mind" attitude. Even when we do acknowledge tragedy, it is not in our nature to dwell on it. There's no use crying over spilt milk, right? We have almost become desensitized to heartbreak because devastation is so prevalent -- an unfortunate sign of the times. But I am concerned that the joy many of us claim may not be as authentic as the Lord desires for us, because in an effort to self-protect we do not allow ourselves to truly experience pain. And how can you truly know joy if you have not known pain? I am not at all suggesting that we wallow in despair, but if there is anything I have learned in the past few years it is the truth that ignoring an issue does not make it disappear. Furthermore, acknowledging an issue without acknowledging and accepting your feelings about that issue creates much more suffering than necessary on down the road.

This leads into the second thing that struck me while reading this passage: how Nehemiah prayed. He began and finished his prayer by revering and honoring the Lord, confessing his sins and then boldly bringing forth his petitions to God. This very much reminds me of the ACTS acrostic the senior pastor of my church refers to when teaching on prayer.

A - Adoration
C - Confession
T - Thanksgiving
S - Supplication

"Yahweh, the God of heaven, the great and awe-inspiring God who keeps His gracious covenant with those who love Him and keep His commands, let Your eyes be open and Your ears be attentive to hear Your servant's prayer that I now pray to You day and night for Your servants, the Israelites."

Nehemiah 1:5-6, HCSB 

Nehemiah's heart was aligned with God's. He was not interested in personal gain. He remembered God's promises and prayed them -- not for himself -- but for others in order to glorify His king.

I don't know about you, but my prayers this morning started like this:
Lord, thank you for waking me up this morning. Thank you for [listed many blessings].  

Then it turned into: Help me do ____, show me _____, pull me through _____, give me ____. I ended it with the classic, "be it Your will," which I was pretty sure covered me.

It doesn't take a literary genius to recognize that there were a whole lot of "me" petitions in that prayer.

Nehemiah reminded me of some things I had allowed to fall into the back of my mind, though. These reminders re-shaped my prayers and I'm certain re-shaped my day going forward. I hope it does the same for you. 

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