Are you hungry enough?

Let’s start with the text from John: Jesus says to the Jews, “If you believe in Me, streams of living water will flow from within you.”

Living water for a dry and thirsty land. Living water for a people oppressed for years . . . people who had no way to save themselves.

Jesus invites them: if you’re thirsty, come to Me. Drink and refresh yourself with the water I give. Come. Believe. This invitation is also for you. Would you go? Are you thirsty enough?

In Matthew, you read about people who “hunger” and “thirst” for righteousness.

We can’t fully dive into what this means in this reading plan, but do you experience something of this “thirst” and “hunger”? Maybe you’re running out of your resources. You might realize that your resources can’t provide what is truly needed. What do you do then?

In this episode of The Chosen, you see a scene in the synagogue where the Jews are gathered together—God’s chosen people. And they feel that way too - they are proud of their position. After all, they are the elect, right? God “favors” them. You can sense this attitude in the rabbi’s prayer and their behavior toward other nations. We might quickly think, “That attitude is not okay.” But doesn’t that same attitude sometimes exist in you and me?

The central question in this scene becomes: are you hungry enough, or even desperate enough, to lay aside all your abilities, arguments, and perhaps even your self-sufficiency, and admit that you need Jesus?

To receive help, you need to recognize and accept that you are spiritually poor and imprisoned, in need of help (like the pagan widow from 1 Kings 17 and the Syrian leper from 2 Kings 5). You need to acknowledge that you have a problem that you cannot solve alone. As humans, we cannot save or heal ourselves. Only God can do that.

Do you dare to go to Jesus? To come just as you are right now—perhaps bankrupt. Do you dare to believe that He will do what He promises?

Are you hungry and thirsty enough? Perhaps even desperate? The invitation from Jesus is not a one-time offer. It’s a continual call: Are you thirsty? Come! Keep coming to Him so that your thirst will be quenched and your soul satisfied with Jesus Himself, and so that streams of living water will (continue to) flow through you to the world around you.

God’s love extends to the foreigner, the gentile, His chosen people, and—yes—also to you.

Will you come? Do you believe?

Take the following questions with you to reflect on:

• Do you experience any sense of ‘hunger’ and ‘thirst’? How do you feel that?
• Have you come to Jesus with your hunger, thirst, or desperation? Why or why not?
• Are there moments when pride or arrogance gets in the way of accepting Jesus’ invitation? What do you do in those moments?

Prayer: “Lord, thank You for Your invitation. Your heart. Your living water. Your outstretched hand. I honestly admit that I often pass by it and try to ‘fix’ things on my own. Lord, forgive me! Help me to set aside all my pride and come to You in faith. You are the source of life. You are nourishment for my soul. Lord, here I am. Amen.”