I’ve read that the human body can only go about three days without water. The body begins to die without life-giving liquid. We crave it. Need it so desperately that in dry lands, wars are fought for it. Without water, every living thing dies.

In a dry territory, David understood thirst. So, when he describes his spiritual need for God, he compares it to needing the basis of life—water. Psalm 63:1 says, “You, God, are my God, earnestly I seek you; I thirst for you, my whole being longs for you, in a dry and parched land where there is no water.”

The woman at the well in John 4 longs for a physical drink of water, but Jesus sees her need for spiritual hydration.

Matthew 5:6 makes the spiritual side physically immediate by comparing thirst with spiritual longing. “Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they will be filled.”

At the Festival of Tabernacles, Jesus again compares himself to water. “‘Let anyone who is thirsty come to me and drink.’”

Christ compares himself to the foundational need for water to point up our greater need. As much as God designed us to require water, even more so did God design us to need Him.

Whether we understand the longings of our spirits or ignore them entirely, our beings cry out for Him. We may try to fulfill that need with television or work or sex or countless other things. But, like swallowing sea water, slaking our thirst on anything but the Living Water offers only momentary relief and, often, long-term disaster.

How long does the spirit last without the Lord? How quickly does the spirit wither and droop without the watering of the Holy Spirit? Just as we need physical refreshment, we must have the spiritual infilling that the Lord can provide. Our spirits crave sustenance. And the Lord offers it to us—as Himself.

“Come, all you who are thirsty, come to the waters; and you who have no money, come, buy and eat! Come, buy wine and milk without money and without cost” (Isaiah 55:1).

He satisfies the thirsty (Psalm 109:8-9).

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