“God is thirsting for YOU. God thirsts for your thirst. He thirsts to quench your thirst.”
These are some of the powerful words Matt Maher spoke to an arena full of teens tonight as he shared his thoughts on this year’s theme, interwoven with moving outbursts of worship music. Matt explained in his talk that our very need for God’s presence is shown through our natural and physical need for water. God designed our bodies to rely on outside nourishment as a way to remind us of a much greater thirst in our lives– a thirst for something so intangible, it is not even from this world. Within that thirst is the reminder from God that he desires to be a part of our most desperate and secret wants.
Jesus understands the innermost longings of our hearts, and he wishes for those longings to be completely satiated in Him. After all, which one of us is without a burning desire pent up inside? These desires to have more friendships, to receive affection, to be noticed, praised, respected, or esteemed, often trick us into putting faith in the fleeting assurances of the world. Yet no mater how many retweets we get on Twitter, how much money we make, or what relationships we have, the world can’t heal the aching that shakes our souls.
Nothing we find on our own will ever be enough. The temporary fixes will always fall short. But God never lets us down. God’s love is unmistakably, indisputably permeant. As it says in John 2:17, the things of the world will fade and disappear just like the water we keep drinking to ease our earthly needs. Only God’s water (which he gives freely and selflessly) lasts forever. It’s the ‘Living Water’ that unites us to the promises of heaven with an outpouring of mercy and grace. Matt Maher urged each teen to allow God to relieve our thirst, and in doing so, relieve the thirst he has for our hearts.
Quotables:
“Bring your thirst whatever it is, and allow Good to change it, to move it past the temporary things and move it to his grace and mercy”
“Lay down you hurt, lay down your heart and come as you are.”
“The God of infinity offers you infinite happiness, infinite joy…it’s waiting at the cross.”
“Grace turns our eyes and fixes our orientation, not on temporary desire, but fixes our eyes on God’s love.”
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