The Danger of Dehydration

People who live and work in hot climates especially have to guard against getting dehydrated. Some symptoms of getting dehydrated are brain fog, irritability, indigestion, cramps, and feeling tired. Of course all the health experts tell us to drink plenty of water. With all of the warnings, there are still some people who drink little water simply because they do not feel thirsty.

Dehydration can cause serious physical problems. However, spiritual dehydration can endanger our relationship to God. The psalmist describes a deer in Psalm 42 who is thirsty. Perhaps the deer had been pursued by a predator or had been running from a fire. This intense thirst is described in Ps. 42:1,2: “As the deer pants for the water brooks, so pants my soul for You, O God. My soul thirsts for God, for the living God. When shall I come and appear before God?” The deer described here was panting in thirst until he could drink deeply of that cool spring. The psalmist experienced that same intense thirst for fellowship with the living God.

Many people walk through their lives dehydrated. They have cut themselves off from the only thing that can refresh their parched soul. Jesus spoke to a woman at a well in Samaria. As she was seeking water from the well Jesus spoke to her about living water in John 4:13,14: "Whoever drinks of this water will thirst again, but whoever drinks of the water that I shall give him will never thirst. But the water that I shall give him will become in him a fountain of water springing up into everlasting life". On that day, the Samaritan woman was no longer dehydrated. She had her thirst quenched with living water.

Are you thirsty? Are you suffering from the signs of spiritual dehydration? Do you long for a source of refreshment from a well that will never run dry? Jesus invites all of us to come to the fountain. At the end of the Bible Jesus calls everyone with these words in Rev. 22:17: “And the Spirit and the bride say, "Come!" And let him who hears say, "Come!" And let him who thirsts come. Whoever desires, let him take the water of life freely”.