Lord, I’m thirsty for you

Lord,

I’m so thirsty.

I need more of You.
I know that’s my problem.
I’m thirsty for You.

Instead, I tell myself that one drink–one verse,
one prayer–
adds enough to my day’s experience.
It’s enough for a thirsty soul.

Instead of drinking deeply,
I ask You for quick fixes–
instant success,
acceptance,
comfort,
recognition,
security,
love–
from everything and everyone around me,
including You.
That’s the water I think I need.
(Click here to listen to the powerful worship song “Living Water” by Gateway.)

Yet I’m deeply parched.
Instead of drinking deeply from the well of Living Water (You),
I pray little prayers instead:

Help me get through the day.
Show me what to do.
Take away this anxiety.
Protect my family.
Solve this problem.
Meet my needs.

Those are little requests–
little drinks of water that will never parch my thirst for You.
They will not sustain or fill me.
They will not give me Living Water.
I will have to come back again and again, wanting more
but never finding it,
until I give up
and say “God doesn’t answer prayers” or
“Christianity doesn’t work.”

Quench me, Jesus.
Fill me up.
I empty myself to You
and ask for everything You want to give me,
even those things I’m afraid of.

I want to drink deeply until I can drink no more.
(Click here to hear the old-time gospel song “Fill my cup, Lord.”)

Amen.

“Jesus answered, ‘Everyone who drinks this water will be thirsty again, but whoever drinks the water I give him will never thirst. Indeed, the water I give him will become in him a spring of water welling up to eternal life.” (John 4:13-14)