_CHANGING ASKING INTO THIRSTING_
"_Go, call thy husband!_"
--JOHN iv. 16-30.
I never supposed that the transformation would begin here. I thought that
there were some words which would remain unspoken. But here our Master
speaks a word which only deepens the weariness of the woman, and irritates
the sore of her galling yoke. What is He doing?
He is seeking to change the sense of wretchedness into the sense of sin!
He is seeking to change weariness into desire! _He wants to make the woman
thirst!_ And so He puts His finger upon her sin. He cannot give the
heavenly water to lips that merely ask for it. "Sir, give me this water!"
No, it cannot be had for the asking, only for the thirsting! And so the
gracious Lord turns the woman's eyes upon her own sinful life, in order
that in the heat of a fierce shame she might cry out, "I thirst for God,
for the living God!" And sure I am that, before the Lord had done with
her, this quiet, lone cry leapt from her lips, and in immediate response
to the cry she was given a deep draught from the eternal well.
And, good Lord, arouse my sense of my sin that I, too, may thirst for Thy
water! Now, make me thirst for it, and in the thirst receive it!