As has been mentioned throughout the workbook so far, as is mentioned in Thin Within and the Hallidays’ other book, Get Thin Stay Thin (also known as Thin Again), we have a deep thirst within us…a soul thirst. Much of our lives are spent searching for “fountains” or sources to slake the thirst.
This lesson exposes the tendency we have to go to food or anything other than Christ to satisfy the thirst of our hearts.
This lesson calls us to rise up and commit to going no where else to drink, but Christ. In my own life, I know that I have turned to my horses to find some sort of satisfaction, peace, and joy…delight. Even looking to my family to provide that deep joy…well, Christ alone is to be the water from which I drink to meet those deep needs in my heart.
Approval of others, recognition, being “The Thin Within Lady…” none of these things are to be where I look for SOUL satisfaction.
Christ alone is to provide that for me.
The author makes an important distinction:
Drinking implies taking something into your system and receiving nourishment and sustenance from it. I can read that Jesus is the Bread of Life and not feed on Him, or that He is Living Water but still not drink of Him. Feeding and drinking are directly related to the application of Scripture in my life, and it is much more than mere reading. Mere reading of Scripture would be like reading the nutritional contents of a package of food; it does no good to the body until it is eaten and digested. When you read the Scripture, ask God to apply it to your heart and to change your life by the reading of it. This is what it means to drink the Living Water. (TLT, p. 74)
As I go through life, I make a choice–there are many fountains I might be tempted to look to for satisfaction of my heart thirst. Hobbies can be a “false fountain,” food, numbing out with a movie or internet stuff (even hanging out on the Thin Within forums!)…but I am to be resolved, committed, determined to look to nothing or no one else other than Jesus for the quenching of my soul thirst.
I’ve just been praying about this issue myself. I haven’t felt as close to God this past week, and I realized it was because I had developed the habit of getting on the internet just for a short time to avoid work and to reward myself for work.I think it was an idol in the making and definitely a time waster. My new boundaries are twice a day to check my business e-mails and any other internet stuff. I don’t want a new idol in my life!