God—you’re my God! I can’t get enough of you! I’ve worked up such hunger and thirst for God, traveling across dry and weary deserts. Psalm 63:1 THE MESSAGE 

Have you ever noticed what container plants do when their soil becomes dry? At first, they wilt. When once bright and verdant leaves fade and curl, it signals that a plant doesn’t have enough moisture. A thirsty plant will slow its growth and attempt to conserve energy to stay alive. Water can still revive a dry plant. Its outward appearance signals an inward deficiency, but care and attention can restore it to health. 

A curious condition occurs when a plant declines from merely dry to critically dehydrated. Its soil particles pull closer together and away from the container. Sometimes their soil becomes hydrophobic and repels water. Dried up, dying plants reject the very thing that can save them. 

How often do we neglect to water our dry and weary souls? Indicators of a thirsty soul are subtle at first and easy to ignore. Still, we know. We’re not thriving. We lack something. 

When we ignore the signs of our God deficiency and willfully try to keep going on our own, we reach critical dehydration. When we’re so far removed from God, everything feels hopeless. We get hydrophobic hearts that reject His Living Water. The care that brings us back to life is so foreign we’ve forgotten how to accept it. 

The good news is that God never pulls away from us. We may fold in on ourselves, wilt, wither, and dry up, but revival is always available. When we turn to God and say, “I need You,” He is faithful to meet us in our need. His grace floods our souls. We are revived from dry and brittle to alive and thriving under His care. Our dry and weary souls thirst no more. 

God, I feel dry and weary. I’m tired of striving.  I’m spent. I know I can’t live the way I should on my own. Turn to me and saturate my soul, dear Lord. Please bring my dying heart back to life. 

This is an excerpt from Playing in the Dirt: 90 Devotions for Crazy Plant Ladies – a new devotional journal now available for pre-order on DaySpring.com. Shop all books, journals, and devotions from DaySpring here.