I tell myself every January that I
will not complain about heat in the summer. It’s so easy to do. I think about
how spoiled I am and how prone I am to focus on the weather and be distracted
from the Lord. I remind myself that it hasn’t been all that long since human
beings have lived with electricity and the tools of refrigeration. How easy it
is for me to take those things for granted.
In Bible times… in Bible lands… it
must have been brutal, especially during certain seasons of the year. Jesus
would have experienced the heat and the cold, the rain, and all the conditions
of weather just as we do. Somehow I can’t picture Him complaining about it. It
was just part of life. But, also like us, Jesus got thirsty. In preparing for
this Sunday’s service I read part of John 4. There we see Jesus traveling
through Samaria. He stops at a well and encounters a woman, whom He asks for a
drink. He was looking for refreshment of His body, and He took the opportunity
to help her and teach her spiritually about Himself. He speaks to her about
living water. She is intrigued, and asks for it, thinking she will never have
to come to the well again. Water is life. Throughout the day here at camp kids
are being reminded to drink lots of water. We’re blessed with water that is
easily available. It would have been much harder on this woman. I’m sure she
would have loved to not have to return again and again to that well.
But Jesus had something else in
mind: living water. There is only one source of this “water” – Jesus Himself.
He Himself is the water and only He can make it available. But when
we come to Him to “drink” we are refreshed and rejuvenated. In fact, we have
eternal life. There is a spiritual thirst in this “desert” of a world that only
Jesus can quench. All else leads to death. Only Jesus gives life. May our souls
“drink deeply” of Him and find eternal life. He graciously “poured Himself out”
in death on the cross for us. Since He has found me, He satisfies my soul.
John 4:14 (NIV) 14 but whoever drinks the water I give him will never thirst.
Indeed, the water I give him will become in him a spring of water welling up to
eternal life."
John 7:37-39
(NIV) 37 On the last and greatest day of the Feast, Jesus stood
and said in a loud voice, "If anyone is thirsty,
let him come to me and drink. 38 Whoever believes in me, as the Scripture has said, streams of
living water will flow from within him." 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.
Isaiah 44:3-4 (NIV) 3 For I will pour water on the thirsty land, and streams on the
dry ground; I will pour out my Spirit on your offspring, and my blessing on
your descendants. 4 They will spring up like grass in a
meadow, like poplar trees by flowing streams.
Isaiah 55:1-3 (NIV) 1 "Come, all you who are thirsty, come to the waters; and
you who have no money, come, buy and eat! Come, buy wine and milk without money
and without cost. 2 Why spend money on what is not bread, and
your labor on what does not satisfy? Listen, listen to me, and eat what is
good, and your soul will delight in the richest of fare. 3 Give
ear and come to me; hear me, that your soul may live. I will make an
everlasting covenant with you, my faithful love promised to David.
PRAYER: “Thank You,
Lord, for Jesus, in whom my soul delights, and in whom all my needs are met. He
is the source of my life and the giver of hope. Thank you for quenching my
souls deepest longings and for satisfying all my desires in the person of
Christ. May I not look elsewhere, but find in Him alone all that my heart
craves. In Jesus’ name I pray, AMEN.”
Jesus
Christ is Lord!
Scott
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