Thirst

Lord, I don’t have very much time.

Actually, you do. You have all the time you need. And you are joined, right now, in conversation, with Eternity, with an eternal perspective, with One Who is Timeless. Who Was and Is and Is To Come. So why do you feel you don’t have very much time?

Because I need a message.

No. Not really. What you really need, what your world really needs, is not a message. It has lots of messages, some truer than others.

So what do we need? What do I need?

Say you’re hungry, or you think you are hungry. You have many choices, some nutritious, some not so. You could eat a snack filled with protein or one filled with sugar. But what if you are actually not hungry at all? What if you are really just thirsty? Your world’s need, your need, is more based in thirst than in hunger right now.

Okay, I understand the difference from a body’s point of view. But You are talking about our souls, our spirits. What is the difference between soul or spirit thirst, and soul or spirit hunger? I don’t understand.

Your great thirst is to be healed and to be free. Hunger is a signal that your growth needs nourishment, perhaps deeper understanding or clarification. But thirst…thirst is a signal that your soul needs refreshing. You can live longer in the natural without food than you can without water. The same is true in the spirit.

So how do I go about quenching my thirst, then? How do I play a role in quenching anyone else’s?

By experience. You can for a season nourish yourself or others with words, yours, other people’s, even Mine. But to quench the soul’s thirst, you need experience. Music can help refresh a weary, parched spirit. So can beauty, which is why art can be healing as well as merely decorative. You find personal renewal outside in nature, a great source of spiritual water for you. And you have had direct experiences of what you have come to call My Manifest Presence, that extra sense that I Am Here. I Am always Here, always Present, but you are not always aware of My Presence even though you acknowledge it mentally as a spiritual fact. Acknowledging something and experiencing it are vastly different. You need to experience My Presence again. In fact, the more tired you are, the more thirsty you are, you tend to push yourself harder, not easier. You tend to chide yourself for not having more stamina when I have designed both your body and your spirit to send you powerful signals of thirst —not so I can scold you, so I can refresh you.

Lord, I am going to say what I started out saying—I don’t have very much time.

 Yes, your days are very scheduled, and will only become more so. I know. That is why it is a very good thing I Am Timeless. So I will let you in on a secret. There is more to the verse, He gives to His Beloved even in his sleep, than you know.

Turn out your light, lay down your pen, walk away from the computer, and fall asleep in the deep knowledge that I Am infusing you once again as you rest. See if you don’t wake more refreshed in the morning than you have in a while. Let go all that troubles you, even for these few hours, and relax into My Presence.