Thirst

Ever coming back from vacation only to feel like you need another one right away. At times we live for the weekend even though we just had one a few days ago.

"Love never ends. As for prophecies, they will pass away; as for tongues, they will cease; as for knowledge, it will pass away. For we know in part and we prophesy in part, but when the perfect comes, the partial will pass away." 1 Corinthians 13:8-10 ESV

We live in a world filled with temporary provisions. When I see the richest and most glamorous people of our generation suffer the hardships that all people suffer from it reminds me that the human condition is the same at every tier of human existence.

"When I was a child, I spoke like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became a man, I gave up childish ways. For now we see in a mirror dimly, but then face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I have been fully known. So now faith, hope, and love abide, these three; but the greatest of these is love." 1 Corinthians 13:11-13 ESV

My rest will pass away and I will need more. The meal I ate will pass away. My knowledge as good as it is will be old and I will want more. These things are not bad they just are temporary. It is childish to think these things are more than what they really are.

Faith is different. Faith invests in the eternal. Hope must rest on something that will never pass away. Love must come from a source that remains forever. These three abide. Not just for a time... they abide forever.

"Jesus then said to them, 'Truly, truly, I say to you, it was not Moses who gave you the bread from heaven, but my Father gives you the true bread from heaven. For the bread of God is he who comes down from heaven and gives life to the world.' They said to him, 'Sir, give us this bread always.' " John 6:32-34 ESV

When Jesus spoke about eternal things people thought He spoke about temporary provision that would just never run out. Like a fountain of youth.

"Jesus said to them, 'I am the bread of life; whoever comes to me shall not hunger, and whoever believes in me shall never thirst. But I said to you that you have seen me and yet do not believe. All that the Father gives me will come to me, and whoever comes to me I will never cast out.' " John 6:35-37 ESV

Like in John 4 when He spoke to the woman at the well about living water. He was speaking about a different life. A face to face life of love that only the Gospel brings and is expressed in the grace relationship. This life is not biological in origin. It is the very life that comes from God in a flow. As my late Pastor used to say 'un-created life'

"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.' ... 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 woman said to him, 'Sir, give me this water, so that I will not be thirsty or have to come here to draw water.' " - John 4:10, 14-15 ESV

Knowing Him won't eliminate our need to sleep, eat, work or think but we will do it in a different way. Our though life will be fixed on the things that are above and the temporary can be put in it's right place.

"Jesus said to them, 'My food is to do the will of Him who sent Me, and to finish His work. 'Do you not say, 'There are still four months and then comes the harvest'? Behold, I say to you, lift up your eyes and look at the fields, for they are already white for harvest!' " - John 4:34-35 NKJV

He did finish the work. Now our food is the will of God. Our goal is not satisfaction. We live for the harvest.