The heat has been so heavy these past few weeks. I can’t help but drink water constantly for relief. Just so, with the weight of fund raising and the constant whisper of “will we ever leave for England?” squeezing it’s way into the back of my mind, God’s words from Matthew 6 ring in my ears to drown out my selfish discomfort, “seek first my kingdom and my righteousness, and all these things will be added.” Jesus, I’m so thankful your mercies are new every morning! Every day I’m reminded of and am so thankful for the living water that flows through my being.
I wanted to share with you this refreshment God reminds me of each day.
Do you know that feeling when you’re so hungry, and what you begin eating is so good that you can hardly keep yourself from swallowing it before you’ve completely chewed it? That’s how I feel about writing these blog posts sometimes. God’s word and Holy Spirit revelation can be so good at times that I can hardly get a thought clear enough to type it out before I want to take another bite. So I’m going to try really hard to be clear about what I’m about to write by breaking it into smaller bites because I don’t want it to be hard to digest.
When I was little, maybe in 2nd grade or so, my class was learning about habitats. We were told to write down the basic essentials, absolutely necessary, for a creature, such as ourselves, to live. After a little discussion, we concluded that water was at the very top of the list. How interesting then it is that Jesus refers to the Salvation and The Holy Spirit as living water. “If anyone is thirsty, let him come to me and drink. Whoever believes in me, as the Scripture has said, streams of living water will flow from within him.” (Jn 7:37-38) This is a pretty beefy announcement. Let’s chew on this for a second. (Yes, I did. :) )
“If anyone is thirsty...” When Jesus stood and proclaimed this, it was the last day of The Feast of Tabernacles, a seven day feast. There is no doubt in my mind that he caught the attention of everyone present. I mean, come on, feasting for 7 days straight would make any person quite thirsty! But he wasn’t exactly talking about a physical thirst, but the dry desert within that knows life is more than this world offers. We long for inner refreshment. The weight of carrying our sins causes us to feel so spiritually thirsty for relief. But Jesus is explaining that there is complete freedom from our burdens of sin! He longs to take the weight if we will just choose to let Him have it and to quench our thirst if we just receive what He’s offering.
“...let him come to me and drink. Whoever believes in me...” Jesus is making it clear that this drink, this gift which is Salvation and the indwelling of the Holy Spirit, is only available through Him. The acknowledgment and belief in Jesus as the Christ is absolutely crucial. Jesus sacrifice by the coming (at them time this was written) crucifixion, resurrection and exaltation to the right hand of the Father puts only Him in this position to offer such a gift. Absolutely no one else can give such a gift as this, ever. Nobody else, just Jesus Christ. Did I make that clear? Well, I’m going to talk about it more later anyways.
“...as the Scripture has said...” Jesus is establishing himself to the Jewish people he’s speaking to as the one promised to them by God in their scriptures, the Old Testament. He’s saying look! History shows you I’m Him! He’s the one they’ve all been waiting for. The one you and I have been waiting for. But just like today, there are people who chose not to believe, and thus forfeited the gift of eternal life that’s freely given.
“...streams of living water will flow from within him.” Jesus chose his words carefully. He didn’t say “a still bucket of water will sit quietly inside him,” but water that is moving, alive, that gushes outward from the inside. Those who accept this gift will experience eternal life and the indwelling of the Holy Spirit. They will be different from before; changed from the inside out. Abundant life will flow outward from within them. The Holy Spirit will take up residence in death’s old home inside them. This scripture in John is just as relevant today, and Jesus is offering this drink to anyone who hasn’t yet swallowed it.
Nobody else can offer this living water, remember? And why? The gift of salvation is a gift of grace. Not because of anything the people at this feast can do to earn it. Not because of anything you did or can ever do, or anything I did or can ever do, but because of what Jesus did in my place. Jesus was the perfect sacrifice, willingly dying instead of me for my sins. Instead of you for your sins. Jesus was the only perfect sacrifice. Because He was the only man to live completely without sin, but accepted the death penalty required of sin. He was judged in my place, in your place, and in the place of the people He’s speaking to in this scripture. He was judged and found blameless! So death couldn’t have Him and after being stone cold dead for 3 days, He awoke alive! God accepted His sacrifice in our place, thus giving us the opportunity to have this living water! Don’t accept it, then hold it at arms length, bottoms up! Cheers!
Every morning when the worries of today arise and the anxieties of life stand before me, I have to remind myself that living water flows from within me. I must seek Him first.
Please forgive my poor grammar and punctuation. I’ll have my sister edit these from now on. :)
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