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44 FREEBIRD<br />
pleasure<br />
45<br />
READ JOHN 7:37-39<br />
On the last and greatest day of the festival,<br />
Jesus stood and said in a loud voice, “Let<br />
anyone who is thirsty come to me and<br />
drink. Whoever believes in me, as Scripture<br />
has said, rivers of living water will flow<br />
from within them.” By this he meant the<br />
Spirit, whom those who believed in him<br />
were later to receive.<br />
HEAR<br />
GOD’S<br />
STORY<br />
What does it mean to be<br />
thirsty for God?<br />
Scripture states that “The<br />
sorrows of those will increase<br />
who run after other gods”<br />
(Psalm 16:4). What else in life<br />
might we “run after” in hopes<br />
of satisfying a thirst that is<br />
meant to be satisfied in God?<br />
How have you done this in<br />
your own life?<br />
Consider the following explanation by Ned Peterson about the effect of God being<br />
ultimate in his life rather than work. In your current life, how are you—or are you<br />
not—experiencing what Ned describes?<br />
“When I let work take its healthy place in my life, I enjoyed work more, not less. The<br />
only way I can explain it is that I was finally able to enjoy work for what it is rather<br />
than hate it for what it’s not. When I expected work to be my ultimate satisfaction,<br />
it failed at this and left me frustrated and disillusioned with all my efforts. When I<br />
let work be and do what it’s capable of being and doing—delivering a degree of<br />
satisfaction but not ultimate satisfaction—I relaxed and enjoyed it.”<br />
(<strong>Freebird</strong>, Pages 136-137)<br />
Consider the following quote from <strong>Freebird</strong>. How can the command to love God with<br />
all our heart, soul, mind and strength liberate us in our daily lives? How is this an<br />
echo of Jesus’ call to satisfy our thirst in Him?<br />
“If nothing in this world can fully satisfy my deep desires for protection, pleasure,<br />
and purpose, maybe this is by design. Maybe this deep and insatiable desire<br />
was put there to cause us to seek out that which is ultimate and not be satisfied<br />
with temporary solutions. When they asked Jesus to name the most important<br />
command in all of Scripture, he cited the command to love God with all our heart,<br />
soul, mind, and strength. What if we read this command like an instruction manual<br />
to our hearts: ‘Here is how you care for your heart. Your heart is insatiably hungry,<br />
so don’t expect it to be satisfied with something small. Let your heart feast upon<br />
that which is ultimate. If you want to care for your heart, let it love God with<br />
everything it has.’” (<strong>Freebird</strong>, Pages 198–199)
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