Dry…Thirsty…Drink the Living Water

“If you’re DRY then you probably need to CRY.”

I woke early Monday morning this past week with these words vividly printed on my mind and I was reading and re-reading them over and over again. My mind became full of words, phrases, and Scripture that needed to be compiled into some sense of order to satisfy my heart.

Their heart cried to the Lord.
    O wall of the daughter of Zion,
let tears stream down like a torrent
    day and night!
Give yourself no rest,
    your eyes no respite!

(Lamentations 2:18 ESV)

So here goes my feeble attempt to make sense of what I felt was the “nudging” of the Holy Ghost.

Psalm 18:6 tells us: In my distress I called upon the Lord, and cried unto my God: he heard my voice out of his temple, and my cry came before him, even into his ears.

I understand that all the cries or cried in the Bible does not always mean tears…but it does mean a desperate crying from the heart.

I searched for scriptures that had the word cry, cries, cried, tears and weep or weeping. It’s worth your while to take the time to look them up in a concordance and just read through them.

Everyone has their own manner of prayer… many do not cry tears, but still cry before God. I personally am a crier with tears. When I feel His presence, it is so awesome to me that after all these years, I still cannot stop the flow of tears. I have also discovered, that I do not cry about everything that occurs in my life. I attribute my tears as a gift from God. Tears refresh my soul. I can read His Word and as His Spirit flows through the Words I’m reading and connects with my spirit I become so full that my tears flow freely. I hope and pray I never lose the tears or the awe and reverence of God and His Word.

Now back to dryness. As I write, please understand that I have had times of dryness, so I speak from the experience. Did I leave God during those times? NO, I persevered through them. Did I need a large church or conference to remedy my dryness? NO, I continued to worship, yes, I said worship even though He felt so far away. Why? Because I knew that He wasn’t far away, but was calling me closer to Him. However, when the opportunity presented itself in a conference or large church, I did and do take full advantage of the praise time. But those services are not what will provide the day-to-day connection with God. It’s not the size of the church congregation that causes true worship.  It comes from our hearts!

May I say that a dry spell could be a time of testing? God wants to see how we are going to handle it. Will we walk away or trudge on through the barren desert searching for the Water? We have the choice of letting our spirit dry up and become dehydrated or seeking the Living Water that will refresh our souls.

Physical dehydration is horrible and can be painful. Dehydration often affects the internal organs. One can even have hallucinations. Dehydration that is not reversed in time  can quickly  bring DEATH.

Spiritual dehydration is also a painful malady and can cause the inner man to wither away. Just like physical dehydration is generally a slow subtle process until the body starts to break down and becomes weak, Spiritual dehydration occurs the same way…slow and subtle. The lack of hearing the Word causes the dehydration process to begin and we fail to turn our praise into true worship. Worship comes from knowing and connecting to the one we worship.  The adversary sees our lack of response to the Spirit and goes immediately to work to keep us from drinking the living water.

So, once we’ve diagnosed that dehydration is or has occurred what do we do to remedy it? Physically we must re-hydrate ourselves…we must drink water and restore the fluids in our body. If serious enough, we may even require Intravenous intervention. I’ve experienced this physical dehydration a couple of times in my life that required the IV’s. It’s not a pleasant experience. You do not feel like yourself, you think strange thoughts (hallucinations) and your body begins to shut down (very harmful to the kidneys). It also affects our appearance.

What is the Spiritual remedy? First, we must admit that we were responsible for the dehydration. It was our choice not to drink water and keep our body hydrated. Second, we must drink in the living water that will restore our soul and replenish the spiritual nutrients to our inner spiritual man. Third, it may require us to be more diligent and consistent in daily seeking His presence in repentance and worship. Fourth, we must realize it takes our effort to lift the cup of living water to our lips and drink that is what God is looking for. He will provide living water to those who are thirsty.

Personally, I have been a part of large congregations and small. I have found that neither one, large or small made me any drier than the other. Yes, I enjoyed praising and worshipping with music. Yes, I enjoyed being in a large group feeling the Spirit sweep over. But I have more often than not reaped the most when I forgot those around me and only concentrated on worshipping my God. Just me and God.

My private times, my quiet times with my God, have been the sustaining factor in my walk with God these past 54-years. I can always count on Him to be there. I may not always feel His presence, but I know He’s there!

Usually, when I submit myself totally to praising and worshipping Him, forgetting about myself and my supposed needs is when I find Him to be the closest.  I can reach out and touch Him as He passes by.

I can almost hear Him whisper,

“My daughter, this is how it should be”.

 

He will draw near if we seek Him!  That’s a promise.

 

Whispers from my heart,

Pam