My Thirst Quencher - #222

A primary source for quenching your spiritual thirst is daily reading, studying and meditating upon Scripture. Too often we approach Bible study as if it were a buffet table. We pick and choose which passages of Scripture we want to read. If it looks good, if it makes me feel good and if it tastes good, we’ll linger. If we not, we move on. We must learn to develop a new appreciation for God’s Word.

Learn more about the ministry of The Purity Coach at  http://www.thepuritycoach.com

Transcript

It is my prayer, it is my desire, it is my passion to help others find everything they need within a healthy, growing, God-glorifying relationship with their Creator, Savior, and heavenly Father. You see, in that kind of a relationship all soul-thirst is thoroughly quenched; all desires are not just properly expressed, they are thoroughly satisfied.

Welcome to The Point of Purity Podcast. A powerful weekly study filled to the brim with the all the tools from Scripture you will ever need to build a lasting life of Biblical purity and godliness. I’m your host Steve Etner – author, National Speaker, Certified Professional Mentor TM and Purity Coach for The Pure Man Ministry and this is Episode #222 entitled “My Thirst Quencher.”

The Old Testament Prophet Isaiah tells us that “The Lord will guide you always; he will satisfy your needs in a sun-scorched land and will strengthen your frame. You will be like a well-watered garden, like a spring whose waters never fail.” (Isaiah 58:11) And in John 6:35 Jesus said, “I am the bread of life; the one who comes to Me will not be hungry, and the one who believes in Me will never be thirsty.” 

I submit: a primary process for quenching your spiritual thirst is daily reading, studying and meditating upon Scripture. Yet too often we approach Bible study as we would a buffet table. We pick and choose which passages of Scripture we want to read. We sample it. We “sip” it. We “taste” it. If it looks good, if it makes me feel good and if it tastes good, we’ll linger. If we not, we move on.

Oh my friend, we must learn to develop a new appreciation for God’s Word. You should be able to daily cry out, “Oh, how I love your law! I meditate on it all day long” (Psalm 119:97). You need to “love [God’s] commands more than gold, even the finest gold [even above your sinful desires]” (Psalm 119:127). You should be able to shout out to God, “The law from your mouth is more precious to me than thousands of pieces of silver and gold” (Psalm 119:72). So I must ask: Is God’s Word better to you than all the sinful thoughts and King Me oriented fantasies you could ever think or dream?

If you want genuine and lasting victory over your sinful habits, open your Bible daily. “Read in it all the days of [your] life ... learn to fear the Lord [your] God by keeping all the words of [God’s] law and these statutes, and [do] them” (Deuteronomy 17:19). You are to “study [God’s Word] continually. Meditate on it day and night so you will be sure to obey everything written in it. Only then will you prosper and succeed in all you do” (Joshua 1:8). Then you will know victory over King Me. This is why it is so critical that you make the time daily to dig into God’s Word.

Listen closely to what God says in Jeremiah 2:13. “For My people have committed two evils: They have forsaken Me, the fountain of living waters, to hew for themselves cisterns, broken cisterns that can hold no water.”

Turning to anything other than God for your satisfaction is literally wasting your life on something that will not and cannot satisfy. It is like pouring fresh, life-saving water into a filthy, broken pitcher. Whatever is put into that pitcher just comes leaking out because the pitcher is incapable of containing what is inside. If that describes you, you need to change drinking fountains!

You see, God is “the fountain of living water.” God is the only source of spiritual nourishment and refreshment you will ever need for any and every part of life. Everything King Me offers you is nothing but filthy “broken cisterns” that will not - because they cannot - quench your thirst. They are empty pitchers full of empty promises and empty dreams which will ALWAYS leave you empty.

Do you recall the story of Jesus and the Samaritan woman at the well (in John 4:7-30)? “Jesus replied, ‘Anyone who drinks this water will soon become thirsty again. But those who drink the water I give will never be thirsty again. It becomes a fresh, bubbling spring within them, giving them eternal life’.” (John 4:13-14)

Every time you turn to King Me for satisfaction and fulfillment, you always end up thirsty again. Sure, you will be momentarily “satisfied.” But all too quickly you find yourself thirsty yet again. Thirstier than before. This is because those cisterns, those containers with the words “pleasure, fulfillment, and satisfaction” on the label are deceptive. You think they hold exactly what you need. You think that by drinking from them you will be completely satisfied, only to discover that they are broken, dirty, contaminated, and worthless.

It is like drinking sea water. You could be dying of thirst, totally surrounded by water, convinced the wetness of the sea water will “satisfy” your desire; however, the salt in that water will dry you up, making you even thirstier. That is precisely what giving in to your sinful temptations will do to you, guaranteed. Yes, they might give you that temporary, momentary “feel good” but it’s fleeting and fickle. That is a big reason why you keep going back to it. However, as quickly as it came it vanishes, leaving you feeling totally empty yet again. Emptier than before. Thirstier than before. Longing for more. Needing to have more.

The only way—hear me now: the only way—you will ever be able to truly experience a genuine, lasting freedom from the dominion and reign of King Me is to daily choose to bring your thirst to the Heavenly waters. Isaiah 55:1-3 says, “Come to God, the fountain of living water. Why choose to spend your money, your time, and your energy on that which is not fulfilling? Why choose to waste your life on sinful, King Me centered satisfaction instead of enjoying a blessed life found only in a growing relationship with God? Why waste your labor on things that do not satisfy? Instead, choose to focus your worship, and come to God; let God speak into your heart so that your soul may live.” (Isaiah 55:1-3)

Only Jesus, the True Living Water, can genuinely quench your thirst. I understand that right now it may not seem like it. You probably have a hard time believing God can, or even will, do that for you. Your flesh is arguing with you right now, saying, “Maybe it’s true for others, maybe others can have their thirst genuinely quenched by God, but not for me because my personal experiences to date have called God’s promise into serious question.” I assure you, the thirst you have been craving can and will be quenched as you draw deeply from the “fountain of living water,” growing closer and closer to God.

Yet, nagging in the back of your head goes the argument, “But what if? What if God takes it away from me and leaves me hanging high and dry? What if God lets me down?”

Oh, my friend, do not to walk the dangerous “What-If Cliffs.” The reason you are struggling with those fears, the reason you are afraid to let your sinful habit go, the reason you doubt God’s ability, God’s readiness, God’s willingness to meet your every need is simply because you do not yet truly know God. You have not yet developed a deeply powerful, precious relationship with your Creator and Savior of your soul.

That is the purpose and goal of diving deep into Scripture: it will teach you, guide you, help you not only discover but learn how to change fountains and daily drink from the Living Water that Christ gives. When you begin to “taste and see that the Lord is good” (Psalm 34:8), you will discover the bitterness and saltiness of what you have been drinking.

Job 20:12-15 says, “Though evil is sweet in his mouth, though he hides it under his tongue, though he is loath to let it go and holds it in his mouth, yet his food is turned in his stomach; it is the venom of cobras within him. He swallows down riches and vomits them up again.”

What a fitting description of what sinful behavior does to you. Sure, it is “sweet in your mouth” as you devour it. Yes, you don’t want to let it go, even though you know it is bad for you. Yet when you consume it, it turns in your stomach. It is no longer sweet but poisonous, and makes you sick with shame and guilt. It is time to change fountains.

The fresh water God wants to give you is found in His Word, the Bible. Drinking from that fountain happens as you read, study, meditate upon, and walk in obedience to what God reveals to you from Scripture.

OK, I’m going to hit the pause button here until next week’s episode. In the meantime, if you would like to learn more about today’s study, or if you’re interested in learning more about The Pure Man Ministry (what we do to help men across the globe find freedom and victory over sexual sin), be sure to visit our website to see the multitude of resources we’ve made available to you – you can find our website at ThePurityCoach.com     

One of those resources I would like to highlight for you here is the recently updated, 2nd edition of my book entitled “Extreme Mind Makeover: How to transform sinful thoughts and habits into patterns of life pleasing to God.” This newly released 2nd edition is rich with hundreds of Scripture references, scores of practical illustrations, and each chapter now ends with a study guide full of questions and discussion points.

“Extreme Mind Makeover” takes you on a journey through the Bible to examine what God has to say about how your thoughts, words, and actions influence and impact your heart.

If you’ve followed this Point of Purity Podcast for any length of time, then you’ve heard me emphasize the fact that what you think becomes what you do. When you train your mind to think godly thoughts, the things you say and do day in and day out will be godly. On the flip side, when you allow your mind to think sinful, fleshly, ungodly, King Me centered thoughts, the result (your daily attitudes and actions) will be ungodly. So, how do I change the way I think? How do I change the things I do? How do I successfully and effectively guard my heart? This book, “Extreme Mind Makeover” takes you into God’s Word to help you answer those questions.

So, head on over to Amazon.com and purchase your copy of “Extreme Mind Makeover: How to transform sinful thoughts and habits into patterns of life pleasing to God.” today.

And if you have not yet subscribed to this podcast, let me encourage you to do so today so you won’t miss any of our upcoming episodes! So, until next time this is Steve Etner – author, National Speaker, Certified Professional Mentor TM and Purity Coach for The Pure Man Ministry – reminding you that if you are going to glorify God in your everyday living, He must first be glorified in your every moment thinking.