Filled Up With Jesus
In this world, endless possibilities shimmer with the offer to satisfy, carrying the allure of making our lives shinier, more meaningful, or more exciting. Advertising efforts market a brand of contentment for purchase. Our parched souls consume a steady feed of information meticulously curated to convince us of our dismal lack with the promise of fulfillment. Desperately dehydrated, we frequently subscribe, and for a time, we feel satiated until the emptiness threatens, and we seek to fill the hole again.
There is no lack of options available to quench our thirst. Polished cars, potions to perfect our bodies, programmed newsreels, and methods to achieve peak mindsets are all vying for our attention. They offer a welcome distraction and sweet relief from the sorrows of our souls. Yet, in their glittering facade, they fail to satisfy, and often after partaking we feel emptier than ever.
Jesus whispers amid the din, "Anyone who is thirsty may come to me" (John 7:37). Notice the word, anyone. Not the select few extra-religious or the particularly accomplished rule-keepers, not the put-together few, but anyone. The lonely, the abandoned, the rejected, the sinner, the broken, and the thirsty. After our futile attempts to quench our thirst, this gentle offer stands: come to me, all who thirst. We are all welcome in God's embrace.
Like the woman at the well who encountered Jesus, our thirsty souls are not only offered a chance to be satisfied but never to grow thirsty again. Jesus said to the woman, “Everyone who drinks this water will be thirsty again, but whoever drinks the water I give them will never thirst. Indeed, the water I give them will become in them a spring of water welling up to eternal life" (John 4:13-14). In Jesus, we find satisfaction that endures, an endless spring that never runs dry.
A life aligned with Christ experiences rest from the weary pursuit of counterfeit gods or the striving of our souls to be good enough. This full-to-the-brim peace comes not by working hard but simply by receiving Jesus and resting in his presence. The water Jesus gives becomes a spring bubbling into eternity. He promises that we will never thirst again. Only in Jesus do we experience complete satisfaction and have more than we need.
Once we discover Christ and align our life with him, we grow deeper with God and become "like a tree planted by streams of water, which yields its fruit in season and whose leaf does not wither—whatever they do prospers. (Psalm 1:3) We grow rooted in God's love; our faith strengthened by the steady stream of his presence. We develop deeper trust and live with ever-available peace.
We notice that the things we once grasped to satisfy us begin to lose their allure. The apostle Paul explained it this way: "I consider everything a loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whose sake I have lost all things. I consider them garbage, that I may gain Christ" (Philippians 3:8). The former things pale in comparison to knowing Jesus.
Are you soul-thirsty? Are you filling the vacant places with things that fail to satisfy and can only offer temporary relief? Jesus' invitation to come awaits. Drink from the deep well of his limitless love, and be fully satisfied, never to thirst again.
"And I pray that Christ will be more and more at home in your hearts, living within you as you trust in him. May your roots go down deep into the soil of God’s marvelous love; and may you be able to feel and understand, as all God’s children should, how long, how wide, how deep, and how high his love really is; and to experience this love for yourselves, though it is so great that you will never see the end of it or fully know or understand it. And so at last you will be filled up with God himself." ~ Ephesians 3:17-19
