If you want a fresh drink of clear, refreshing spiritual water each day, begin the day with a reading of Isaiah 55. In this wonderful chapter, God invites us who don't have means to purchase what we need, to come enjoy the provision God offers freely. The analogy of coming to the water and drinking is clarified in verse 6: "Seek the Lord while he may be found, call on him while he is near." Provision is as close as prayer, whereby we show our empty hands and then lift them up in joyful praise.

Do you have a spiritual thirst that only God can satisfy? What I mean by that, is do you have a desire to be with God that is so great, that failing to do so tends to make you physically weak? Thirst is a product of our body to satisfy a need for water. Our spiritual need for God is just as real as our physical need for water. For example, a body goes too long without water and it can die of dehydration. The longer a Christian goes without being in God's presence, the more he loses spiritual desire.

Have you lost spiritual desire? If you're not praying regularly, there's little doubt you're spiritually weak. But if it's been a long long time and you have no desire to fix the problem, your spiritual body has become dehydrated and is in danger of drying up if you don't go to the water.

Isaiah says a person who claims to be saved but is satisfied with what the world offers is like spending money on that which is not bread. (Vs. 2) Worldly things may satisfy for a moment, but it has no lasting benefit. Almost immediately, you find yourself hungry and thirsty again. But when you eat at God's table and drink the living water He provides, you leave the table fully satisfied and refreshed.

Luke reported that Jesus often withdrew to lonely places and prayed. Have you found momentary relief to your hungry soul by doing "churchy" things. How long has it been since you got alone and spent time alone with God? Are you spending money on that which is not bread?

1. Pray Through the Word - 365 devotionals on the subject of prayer by James R. Green (Isa 55; Lu 5:1-16)
2. Scripture comes from the Holy Bible, New International Version; (c)1978 by New York International Bible Society

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