John 4:10-13, John 7:37-39
Jesus answered her, “If you knew the gift of God and who it is that asks you for a drink, you would have asked him and he would have given you living water.”11 “Sir,” the woman said, “you have nothing to draw with and the well is deep. Where can you get this living water? 12 Are you greater than our father Jacob, who gave us the well and drank from it himself, as did also his sons and his livestock?”13 Jesus answered, “Everyone who drinks this water will be thirsty again, 14 but whoever drinks the water I give them will never thirst. Indeed, the water I give them will become in them a spring of water welling up to eternal life.”15 The woman said to him, “Sir, give me this water so that I won’t get thirsty and have to keep coming here to draw water.”37 On the last and greatest day of the festival, Jesus stood and said in a loud voice, “Let anyone who is thirsty come to me and drink. 38 Whoever believes in me, as Scripture has said, rivers of living water will flow from within them.” 39 By this he meant the Spirit, whom those who believed in him were later to receive. Up to that time the Spirit had not been given, since Jesus had not yet been glorified.
"May God himself, the God of peace, sanctify you through and through. May your whole spirit, soul and body be kept blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ." 1Thes. 5:23
What is it you are craving? What is it you are thirsting for in life? The woman at the well was possibly thinking sex, security, love from a man, the desire to be needed ... who knows, would make her emptiness in her life filled or quenched. You see we are all made with this vacuum, this spiritual hole, that God wants to bring to life but until that is alive, the unredeemed flesh, the body filled with it's lusts, and the soul - the mind planning ways to gratify those thirsts - will unsuccessfully seek to fill that void, vacuum, or ultimate thirst in your life that only God, through the Holy Spirit can fill. When the flesh attempts to fill it, the hole is filled with something that doesn't fit. This leads to depression, anxiety, and restlessness looking for the next thing or more of the previous thing to satisfy which never does.
This is what Jesus was talking about with Nicodemus in Chapter 3. Jesus says, "you must be born again" which is what has happened in the top picture. The spirit which is dead or dormant or asleep needs to be brought to life by the entrance of the Holy Spirit. He alone fills the vacuum and the God shaped hole which was formed to fit Him and Him alone exactly. The Holy Spirit quenches that thirst that the flesh has been trying relentlessly to satisfy. The Holy Spirit makes that which was meant to be in the image of God, triune. It takes us who were basically two dimensional, body and soul, into a three dimensional person, body, soul, and Spirit, which we were created to be. No wonder being born again makes us feel whole and fulfilled. Then we no longer live to satisfy the cravings, thirsts, of the flesh but live to satisfy the Spirit. It is an inside out life not an outside in.
This is what Jesus offers all of us, a quenching of our thirsts. An end to wanderlust. "He leads you beside still waters; He restores your soul". Have you experienced this? If you have but are back to searching other things to fulfill you, repent and go back to seeking the Lord. Only He can satisfy your thirst. If you have never experienced this, surrender your life to Jesus. Let Him in. Let Him have control of your life. Admit your way didn't work. He will come in and you will never thirst again.
