John 7 | Drink
December 7th, John 7.
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.
John 7:37
Do you thirst? Do you have a deep longing within you for something great, deeper, more robust than anything you’ve sought to fill your life with on this earth?
Chalres Spurgeon, preaching on this text, says:
Do you ask me again, "What is this thirst?" Thirst is nothing actual, or substantive—it is a lack, a need crying out of its emptiness. It is the absence of a necessity. Sinner, you need not look for any good thing in yourself—the thirst which is sought for is the absence of all good things. Thirst is a painful need…When our system needs drink, a merciful Providence creates a pang so that we are driven to take notice that a requisite of life must be immediately supplied. Thirst rings the alarm and the mind and body set to work to supply the urgent demand. It were a dreadful thing if the system needed water and yet did not thirst, for we might be fatally injured before we knew that any harm was happening to us. The pain of thirst is a salutary warning that something very important is needed.
Now, Soul, if you are suffering from fear or despondency—if your heart is heavy and you have disquietude of spirit—if you have a longing, a sighing, a pining after something better and holier, then you are thirsty. If you have this thirst in any measure or degree, you are bid to come to Christ and drink. If you have not as yet a burning thirst, nor a fever, but if you have any sort of thirst, you may come and drink. If you do, in any measure, long for mercy and renewal, you are included in this invitation, "If any man thirsts, let him come unto Me and drink." Do not look within yourself to find any good thing. Is thirst a good thing? No, thirst is an evil thing to be removed! And if you see in yourself only evil things to be removed, you have all that Jesus sets forth in this text as the description of those whom He permits to come to Himself. He says so much and no more—"If any man thirsts, let him come unto Me and drink."
I wonder whether I have found out the thirsty person this morning? Are you sitting upstairs in the top gallery? Or are you among the thicker company below? Where are you? Find yourself out now! Turn your eyes inward—look not to your neighbor, but say within your own soul, "Yes, I thirst. Perhaps not as I should, but still I do desire. I am uneasy, I have an unrest, there is an absence of good in me. Oh, that my thirst were satisfied this morning!" Friend, you are my man! Before we go further, let me salute you and say, "Man, my Brother," or, "Woman, my Sister, the Lord Jesus says unto you, 'Come unto Me and drink.'" Thus much upon the enquiry after the thirsty ones.
Reflection Question
If you want to thirst for the things of God, but do not, perhaps that is it’s own thirst. How can you build time into your day to “drink” of what God supplies by spending time with Him?
Fighting to find my deepest delights in God,
Josh.