July 29th, 2025
This week, I’ve been thinking about the power of hunger and thirst. We all know what it is to want something to eat. We all know what it is to desire a drink. But do we know what it is to be desperate? Jesus said,
“Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be filled.” (Matthew 5:6)
I don’t believe He was talking about a casual hunger in this Scripture. He was speaking of a desperation for righteousness that eclipses every other desire. We must long for the Lord as David did in Psalm 42:1-2. He prayed,
“As the deer pants for the water brooks, So, my soul pants for You, O God. My soul thirsts for God, for the living God; When shall I come and appear before God?”
God has so much more, and He is waiting on us to long for that which He longs to give us. Jeremiah 29:13 says,
“You will seek me and find me when you seek me with all your heart.”
Have we sought Him with all of our hearts? Have we given Him the best of our time, our finances, and our dreams? This is not something that we can achieve by striving in our natural abilities. It must be driven by true hunger birthed in our hearts by the Holy Spirit. Jesus said, “Zeal for your house consumes me” (John 2:17).
The Son of God was driven by the Spirit of God. He was singularly focused on the purpose of heaven for His life. He was consumed. He was God, but He showed us a pattern of desperation that did not decrease as His ministry progressed. Jesus spent whole nights praying to the One He longed for. Do you long for Him?
Paul said,
“I press on to take hold of that for which Christ Jesus took hold of me.” (Philippians 3:12)
When we’re saved, we are planted in the will of our Father, and nothing can remove us from His hand, except our own choice (John 10:28). However, we must then press on to take hold of the thing He created us for.
John 4:7-15 records the story of Jesus and a Samaritan woman. It says,
‘A woman from Samaria came to draw water. Jesus said to her, “Give me a drink.” (For His
disciples had gone away into the city to buy food.) The Samaritan woman said to Him, “How is it
that you, a Jew, ask for a drink from me, a woman of Samaria?” (For Jews have no dealings with Samaritans.) Jesus answered her, “If you knew the gift of God, and who it is that is saying to you, ‘Give me a drink,’ you would have asked Him, and He would have given you living water.” The woman said to him, “Sir, you have nothing to draw water with, and the well is deep. Where do you get that living water? Are you greater than our father Jacob? He gave us the well and drank from it himself, as did his sons and his livestock.” Jesus said to her, “Everyone who drinks of this water will be thirsty again, but whoever drinks of the water that I will give him will never be thirsty again. The water that I will give him will become in him a spring of water welling up to eternal life.”’
The spring of water Jesus was referring to in this Scripture is the Holy Spirit, who had yet to be given. We know this from what He said a few chapters later. In John 7:37-39, Jesus said,
‘“If anyone thirsts, let him come to me and drink. Whoever believes in me, as the Scripture has said, out of his heart will flow rivers of living water.’” Now this He said about the Spirit, whom those who believed in him were to receive, for as yet the Spirit had not been given,\ because Jesus was not yet glorified.’
This river of living water began to flow in its fullness when the Holy Spirit was poured out on the disciples in Acts 2, and He is still flowing today. 1 Corinthians 12:13 says,
“For in one Spirit we were all baptized into one body—Jews or Greeks, slaves or free—and all were made to drink of one Spirit.”
You were made to drink living water. You were made to flow in the river that never runs dry. You were made to be continuously filled to overflow with His presence (Ephesians 5:18). So, we want to ask you, are you thirsty? Are you dry? Are you tired and desperate? There is a river of life in Him.
Imagine you have been lost in a desert for days and you are desperately thirsty, dry, and
exhausted from the sun. You can barely swallow because of the dryness of your mouth. Your lips are cracked and peeling. The only thing you can think about is a drink. Finally, you come to a river of cool, clean water rushing through the parched land. What will you do? Will you come and fill your cupped hands with a couple sips of water and then walk back into the desert? Of course not! You would sit and drink until you couldn’t drink anymore and then you wouldn’t leave the river. Almost all ancient civilizations were established by rivers, because it was the only way they would survive. We need water to live – both physically and spiritually.
It is the same for a child of God. You cannot take a sip of the Holy Spirit every couple of weeks, months, or years, and expect to thrive. We must learn to drink of His presence every day, as we drink water to live!
Are you desperate for Him? There is life in Him, and Him alone. There is a river we can dwell in that never runs dry. This week, we encourage you to drink of the One who was poured out for you. We encourage you to hunger and thirst for the One who gives life. We encourage you to seek Him with all your heart because when you do, you will find Him! As Revelation 22:17 says,
“…Let the one who is thirsty come; let the one who desires take the water of life without price.”
“Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be filled.” (Matthew 5:6)
I don’t believe He was talking about a casual hunger in this Scripture. He was speaking of a desperation for righteousness that eclipses every other desire. We must long for the Lord as David did in Psalm 42:1-2. He prayed,
“As the deer pants for the water brooks, So, my soul pants for You, O God. My soul thirsts for God, for the living God; When shall I come and appear before God?”
God has so much more, and He is waiting on us to long for that which He longs to give us. Jeremiah 29:13 says,
“You will seek me and find me when you seek me with all your heart.”
Have we sought Him with all of our hearts? Have we given Him the best of our time, our finances, and our dreams? This is not something that we can achieve by striving in our natural abilities. It must be driven by true hunger birthed in our hearts by the Holy Spirit. Jesus said, “Zeal for your house consumes me” (John 2:17).
The Son of God was driven by the Spirit of God. He was singularly focused on the purpose of heaven for His life. He was consumed. He was God, but He showed us a pattern of desperation that did not decrease as His ministry progressed. Jesus spent whole nights praying to the One He longed for. Do you long for Him?
Paul said,
“I press on to take hold of that for which Christ Jesus took hold of me.” (Philippians 3:12)
When we’re saved, we are planted in the will of our Father, and nothing can remove us from His hand, except our own choice (John 10:28). However, we must then press on to take hold of the thing He created us for.
John 4:7-15 records the story of Jesus and a Samaritan woman. It says,
‘A woman from Samaria came to draw water. Jesus said to her, “Give me a drink.” (For His
disciples had gone away into the city to buy food.) The Samaritan woman said to Him, “How is it
that you, a Jew, ask for a drink from me, a woman of Samaria?” (For Jews have no dealings with Samaritans.) Jesus answered her, “If you knew the gift of God, and who it is that is saying to you, ‘Give me a drink,’ you would have asked Him, and He would have given you living water.” The woman said to him, “Sir, you have nothing to draw water with, and the well is deep. Where do you get that living water? Are you greater than our father Jacob? He gave us the well and drank from it himself, as did his sons and his livestock.” Jesus said to her, “Everyone who drinks of this water will be thirsty again, but whoever drinks of the water that I will give him will never be thirsty again. The water that I will give him will become in him a spring of water welling up to eternal life.”’
The spring of water Jesus was referring to in this Scripture is the Holy Spirit, who had yet to be given. We know this from what He said a few chapters later. In John 7:37-39, Jesus said,
‘“If anyone thirsts, let him come to me and drink. Whoever believes in me, as the Scripture has said, out of his heart will flow rivers of living water.’” Now this He said about the Spirit, whom those who believed in him were to receive, for as yet the Spirit had not been given,\ because Jesus was not yet glorified.’
This river of living water began to flow in its fullness when the Holy Spirit was poured out on the disciples in Acts 2, and He is still flowing today. 1 Corinthians 12:13 says,
“For in one Spirit we were all baptized into one body—Jews or Greeks, slaves or free—and all were made to drink of one Spirit.”
You were made to drink living water. You were made to flow in the river that never runs dry. You were made to be continuously filled to overflow with His presence (Ephesians 5:18). So, we want to ask you, are you thirsty? Are you dry? Are you tired and desperate? There is a river of life in Him.
Imagine you have been lost in a desert for days and you are desperately thirsty, dry, and
exhausted from the sun. You can barely swallow because of the dryness of your mouth. Your lips are cracked and peeling. The only thing you can think about is a drink. Finally, you come to a river of cool, clean water rushing through the parched land. What will you do? Will you come and fill your cupped hands with a couple sips of water and then walk back into the desert? Of course not! You would sit and drink until you couldn’t drink anymore and then you wouldn’t leave the river. Almost all ancient civilizations were established by rivers, because it was the only way they would survive. We need water to live – both physically and spiritually.
It is the same for a child of God. You cannot take a sip of the Holy Spirit every couple of weeks, months, or years, and expect to thrive. We must learn to drink of His presence every day, as we drink water to live!
Are you desperate for Him? There is life in Him, and Him alone. There is a river we can dwell in that never runs dry. This week, we encourage you to drink of the One who was poured out for you. We encourage you to hunger and thirst for the One who gives life. We encourage you to seek Him with all your heart because when you do, you will find Him! As Revelation 22:17 says,
“…Let the one who is thirsty come; let the one who desires take the water of life without price.”
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