Seventy percent of our world is water.
Water has been from the beginning, "Now the earth was formless and empty, darkness was over the surface of the deep, and the Spirit of God was hovering over the waters." Genesis 1:2
Water is vital to our existence as human beings.
Our bodies let us know when we are short in this area, by giving us a thirst signal.
Interestingly, by the time you consciously feel thirsty, often you are already at 75% of your reserve hydration. If you ignore that signal, your body will eventually adjust. It will hold on to whatever water it can, through diet or otherwise. The thirst signal can fade into the distance of all the stimulation we receive everyday.
It is surprising though, that if you are someone who isnt a big water drinker and you decide to treat your body to a sip at some point, you find that your thirst signal that you may have ignored totally suddenly pushes itself to the forefront of your mind. Try it. You will find that, especially if you are not used to drinking alot of water, you will crave more water if you give yourself a little.
As you continue to treat your body to hydration, you will continue to thirst more and more. As your body gets used to getting water, it will spark that craving again, and the more water you drink the thirstier you may feel.
Our relationship with God is so similar.
I am sure that I am not alone in that often my heart and head desire a relationship with God more than my schedule shows. I often desire what I see others having, an intense relationship but peaceful relationship with God. I want to spend the time I know I need with God everyday, and yet I have a hard time finding the time to do it.
While on some level I feel motivated, I have a hard time making all my things to do fit the time and effort I need to put into my daily relationship with God.
Something that I have discovered, that God's word and the peace that comes with a love relationship with Him, has a thirsting affect on me.
Just like a sip of water to a parched body, when we offer God to our hearts, our hearts react with a primitive craving. The more time, effort and energy we give to that time with God, the more we want it.
Practically speaking, I have found that when I offer God the 15 minutes I can scrape together for the day, my spirit is sparked. I feel desirous for more. The next day, I find that it is not something I have to work for as much, but desire that 15 minutes and more. As I continue to feed my spirit with that Water which it was created for, my spirit feels motivated to continue to take in more.
Considering this, how well Jesus understands me ... "Whoever believes in me, as the Scripture has said, streams of living water will flow from within him." John
7:48
If you are struggling with the desire and/or motivation to do what needs to be done to nurture that relationship with God, offer your spirit a sip. Just like your body in the very smallest cell, your spirit will begin to hunger for more.
Dont believe me? Try it.
I love this analogy. On a purely physical level, it explains a lot about my recent drinking habits:). I feel like I drink so much water everyday, and then I'm still thirsty a lot. It's like, right when I STOP drinking water, even for an hour, my body is like, "Um, where's the water?" It makes sense now that since I'm properly hydrating my body, my body has developed a strong, normal thirst.
ReplyDeleteI definitely feel that it applies to our spiritual walk, too. I know that I have personally gone for a month or more without real communion with God, and I've thought, "Funny, it feels like I should be missing that more." But my body has become adapted to life without direct communion with God, and so it seems okay. Finally, though, things start to really break down, revealing it to be the unhealthy situation it is.
Conversely, I've had times, like the one I'm now in, where I start to read and study daily, and if I miss even a day (or even several hours), I will be really feeling it. I guess that my spiritual body starts to develop its natural thirst for God.
Great analogy!
Thanks for that thought. I'm certainly seeing it right now, both physiciall (time to fill up my water bottle again!) and spiritually.
ReplyDeleteGreat post! And how true. Thanks for sharing. :) God bless!
ReplyDeleteCarol