Dehydrated Spirits

Picture it: a flower without water for a few days.

Does it look alive and well? Nope. It is probably starting to shrivel up and die because it has not been hydrated with the life sustaining element called water. In fact, isn’t it a proven fact through science that water is necessary for our survival? The minute you add water to the equation even a dying flower can bounce back. What if the same goes for our spirits?

Today, there is a lot of dehydrated spirits out there. Now that may sound confusing but stay with me on this. I cannot begin to tell you the countless times that I felt thirsty inside. I am not talking about a physical thirst but rather a spiritual one. The feeling of where you begin to feel like you are drying up inside. All the joy and happiness that you have experienced when you were a little gal went out the backdoor. All the ups and downs that life can throw at you made you cave in. And you sometimes feel like you have nothing left to give, and you start to wonder where the non-worry, joyous gal you once were went. Those thoughts have run through my mind a thousand times. They have probably even crossed yours as well.

But there is a way to quench that drying thirst inside….

Let us go back to the flower scenario. A flower needs water to stay alive. Do you plant flowers and just leave them for the rain to water them? No. You must get up every day and grab a bucket or a hose to water them so that they are receiving it. The same goes for our spirits. If we let our spirit go days, weeks, months, or even years without spending time with Jesus, our spirits start to dry up. But if we spend time with Jesus, amazing things start to happen.

Let us peek at Isaiah 58:11. It says, “…you will be like a watered garden and like a spring whose water never runs dry”. We can also find this in the well-known encounter that Jesus had with a Samaritan woman at the well. Ironic, ay? Jesus tells the woman at the well that “Everyone who drinks this water will be thirsty again, but whoever drinks the water I give them will never thirst” (John 4:13-14). The key is that Jesus is the living water that never runs dry. All we must do is receive Him. But while we have His living water running through us now, it does not stop there. We must work at keeping our spirits hydrated. How do we do that? We must establish a routine. Just like a flower should receive water in the morning to help keep it going through the hot summer days, Christians must start the morning off with Jesus. Whether it is a devotional, a worship song, reading scripture, praying, or a sermon, it prepares your spirit to be strong throughout the rest of the day. It gets your mind and heart in alignment with the Lord. I know that when I do not start my morning off with Jesus, I feel like the hunchback of Notre dame.

Remember, the enemy goes around seeking whom he may devour (1 Peter 5:8). Be confident in the fact that the we can draw from the well of the living water, Jesus. He is an unlimited source.