Are You Thirsty?

Recently, God has been teaching me a lot about spiritual thirst. He so often speaks the same message to me in a variety of ways. (I think I’m a bit of a slow learner.)

• For several weeks I felt I should read Isaiah 55 every day. The first words of this awesome chapter are “Come, all you who are thirsty. Come to the water and drink.”
• Then, as a part of my job, I was asked to review Ruth Haley Barton’s book, Strengthening the Soul of Your Leadership. Barton eloquently describes how we should minister from that place where we meet with God and the difference when we minister from a place of depletion or spiritual thirst.
• About three weeks ago I began teaching Max Lucado’s book, Come Thirsty to my adult class at church. The title says it all!
• He has even been using a song entitled, The More I Seek You. The lines resounding in my heart are, “I just want to sit at Your feet, drink from the cup in Your hand, lean back against You and breathe, feel Your heart beat…”

This past weekend I spoke at a leadership event in Little Rock, Arkansas. I planned to share many of the concepts I felt the Lord had impressed on my heart from Isaiah 55 and the books I had read. My message for Friday night was entitled, Are You Thirsty? I was hoping the worship leader would be able to lead the song, The More I Seek You. Before the service I asked him if he knew the song and he told me he didn’t. No biggy…I thought, I can just tell them about the song and recite the lyrics. (Believe me, they wouldn’t want me to sing them!)

Angelia Carpenter, the director of the event, had asked several girls from the Arkansas Teen Challenge to sing before I spoke. She told me that they would sing two songs and then Lisa Ramsey would introduce me. They arrived late—just before they were scheduled to sing. But just as planned, they sang two songs and Lisa went to the platform to introduce me. When Lisa got to the platform, one of the girls whispered in her ear. Lisa simply nodded and sat down because the girls felt they should sing one more song. You guessed it—they sang, The More I Seek You.

All I could think was, “Wow, God, You are AMAZING! You must really want to quench our spiritual thirst tonight!”