I can safely say that all believers, at one time or another, “go through a dry season” where our souls are not satisfied. But as we shall see, there is only one Person who can bring us out of that “dry season.” Of course, I’m referring to our Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ who said, “If anyone thirsts, let him come to Me and drink. He who believes in me, as the Scripture has said, out of his heart will flow rivers of living water” (John 7:37-38). As we see in this passage, we must “be THIRSTY” in order for us to heed these words and you have expressed that very thing. You are “going through a DRY season” and the Lord wants you come to Him to relieve your thirst!

How good it is when one “THIRSTS for God!” The Psalmist said, “As the deer pants for the water brooks, so pants my soul for You, O God. My soul THIRSTETH for God, for the living God” (Psalm 42:1-2). He expressed this same desire in Psalm 63:1, “O God, You are my God; early will I seek You; my soul THIRSTS for You in a DRY and thirsty land where there is no water.” The problem we sometimes have (and this is what you seem to be experiencing right now) is that we try to “satisfy our thirst” in the wrong places. You say you are “just not happy in your church” and you “don’t seem to measure up to their holy standards or approval.” Dear friend, we will never be happy or satisfied by having our eye on our fellow-man, even if it happens to be fellow-believers. It is NOT the church who sets the standards we are to live by, nor is it their approval that we should covet. It is in God’s Word that we have standards to live by and it’s God’s approval that we should desire.

Again, the main reason we go through a “dry season” is because we are seeking to “quench our thirst” in the wrong places. We see this brought out in Jeremiah 2:13 where the Lord says, “For my people have committed two evils: they have forsaken Me, the fountain of living waters, and hewn themselves cisterns—broken cisterns that can hold no water.” When this was written God’s earthly people had forsaken the Lord and were going after “other gods” (idols) to bring purpose and satisfaction to their hearts. The “first evil” (of “forsaking the Lord”) was the root of their problem. They had forgotten how precious the Lord was and how they had constantly “drank from the fountain of His LOVE.” We read of this in verse 2, “Thus says the LORD: ‘I remember you, the kindness of your youth, the love of your betrothal, when YOU WENT AFTER ME in the wilderness, in a land not sown.’” But as time went on, they lost sight of God’s love and thus in verse 5 we read, “Thus says the LORD: ‘What injustice have your fathers found in Me, that THEY HAVE GONE FAR FROM ME, have followed idols, and have become idolaters?’” The moment a believer “forsakes the Lord,” he/she is on a path that leads to idolatry, where they will try to satisfy the heart with something in this poor world. Whatever it may be (possessions, fame, pleasures, etc.), they are an IDOL that has replaced Christ in our hearts, the only true “fountain of living waters.” Everything we try are worthless wells; “broken cisterns that can hold no water.”

So, how do we get back to the Lord who alone can meet our “soul-thirst?” The key word that comes to mind is the word REMEMBER, for just as the Lord said above “I REMEMBER you” we need to “REMEMBER Him.” We need to REMEMBER His love for us! In Revelation 2:4 the Lord Jesus said to the church at Ephesus, “Nevertheless I have this against you, that you have LEFT YOUR FIRST LOVE.” Like Israel of old they had once been enamored with God’s love for them which in turn led them seek the Lord to constantly drink from His ocean of love. The saints at Ephesus had FORGOTTEN the love that Christ has for them and this was the first step downward into a “DRY land.” In verse 5 the Lord counsels them, “REMEMBER therefore from where you have fallen.” Dear one, do you remember when you were first saved and you realized how much Christ loved you? Do you remember how you constantly praised Him for taking your place in death and judgment on the cross? Do you remember how you found your delight in reading His Word so you could learn more your Savior? Do you remember how you could say, along with the Apostle Paul, “I have been crucified with Christ; it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me; and the life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, WHO LOVED ME AND GAVE HIMSELF FOR ME” (Galatians 2:20). Once you truly REMEMBER these things that captivated your heart you will be brought back to the “fountain of living waters.” Then you will see that the “wells of the world” are indeed but “broken cisterns that can hold no water.” Your soul WILL BE SATISFIED and you will say, along with David, “As the deer pants for the water brooks, so pants my soul for You, O God. My soul THIRSTETH for God, for the living God” (Psalm 42:1-2).  (DO)  (535.1)