The week’s memory verse is John 4:13-14. Write the verse down.

Keep this verse in front of you this week. Place it where you can read and recite it as the week progresses. Maybe make it the lock screen on your computer or phone. Maybe highlight it in your Bible and leave your Bible open. Each time you pass by your Bible or open up your laptop or phone, practice the verse silently or out loud.

Read John 4:1-8 Jesus’ human nature caused Him to be weak, tired, hungry, and thirsty.

Read Hebrews 4:14-16 Jesus can sympathize with our weaknesses because He was human. As we begin to talk about what it means to thirst, the first thing to remind ourselves is that we can confidently draw near God’s throne of grace in our physical need because Jesus understands. He knows what it is like to be weak, tired, hungry, and thirsty.

Do you realize we can also confidently draw near God’s throne of grace when we are spiritually thirsty? Jesus understands our physical weaknesses, but He also understands the yearning and longing we feel as we grapple with our spiritual thirst. Physical thirst calls us to pay attention to our bodies. We are unable to think about much else until we quench the thirst that parches our throat. Spiritual thirst calls us to pay attention to God. We can confidently draw close to God when conflict brews in our inner world. When we feel the friction inside as we contemplate where we are in life and where we are with God, it is tempting to turn away from Him because spiritual thirst is uncomfortable. We may try to dull spiritual thirst with world comforts, but only God can satisfy the longing growing inside of us.

Spiritual thirst is God calling out to us and asking us to pay attention to where we are on our spiritual journey. If we settle into the world’s comforts, we lose our way. We will seek the comforts of this life over Him. Thirst helps loosen our ties to the world’s comforts and brings us on a journey closer to God. God calls us to listen to the longing in our inner world. He encourages us to pay attention to the yearning instead of pushing it away. The natural inclination is to ignore it, but spiritual thirst is evidence that the Holy Spirit is calling us to a deeper place in our relationship with the Lord. What concerns you about facing your spiritual thirst with God? What excites you about facing your spiritual thirst with God? Talk with God about how you answered the above questions. Speak with honesty.

Pray this prayer by St. Augustine: "Late have I loved thee, O beauty so ancient and so new; late have I loved thee: for behold you were within me, and I outside; and I sought you outside and in my unloveliness fell upon those lovely things that You had made. You were with me, and I was not with You. I was kept from You by those things, yet had they not been in You, they would not have been at all. You called and tried to break open my deafness: and You sent forth Your beams and shone upon me and chased away my blindness: You breathed fragrance upon me, and I drew in my breath and I do now pant for You: I taste You, and now hunger and thirst for You: You touched me, and I have burned for Your peace."