Jesus answered and said unto her, Whosoever drinketh of this water shall thirst again: But whosoever drinketh of the water that I shall give him shall never thirst; but the water that I shall give him shall be in him a well of water springing up into everlasting life. John 4:13-14
I awoke this morning to a surprise. Ready to finalise today's blog about another subject, I passed through the kitchen to fill the kettle for a cuppa. To my surprise, there was a strange noise but no water! While checking several other taps, my mind went to all the external taps and hoses around the house as we recently had some plumbing work done. Then I came to my senses. If there was no water, the problem must be outside, in the mains.
Changing my short PJ's for pants I ventured to the front yard, the morning still dark. Aha! A truck, silent workers and silt-mud which had poured into our property now squishing between my toes. The main guy (no pun intended) said the water main had burst during the night and we won't have water until sometime in the afternoon.
For drinking purposes, we keep bottles of water in the fridge, and the workers would give us emergency bottles when the second truck arrives, but our front garden isn't on tank water, and there are many plants needing mains water. Also, due to appointments we require showers, which we now can't have, so we needed to rearrange our day.
It wasn't a crisis, but it immediately got me thinking about everything that relies on water in a typical household. My next thought was about the Water of Life, Jesus Christ. People will go to their deaths, never drinking from the well of life that Jesus was explaining about to the Samaritan woman in our scripture. Their entire life is dry and thirsty. They don't realise they live a spiritually arid existence.
A Christian's life can also become dry if we have limited the flow of that water. All our daily experiences—reading, prayer, helping others, keeping our cool at work, offering advice, etc, all require a stream of Heavenly water pouring in on a daily basis.
Health professionals say that the human body comprises around 85% water. What percentage do you think our spiritual body contains? We rarely consider the amount of water required for our spiritual needs, but it works the same way. Otherwise, we run dry within ourselves and have little to offer others.
The Samaritan woman in our scripture went to the well daily and brought home a large container of water for all the household needs.
As branches on the vine of life, we also require much water, particularly leading up to harvest— those times of giving when we are encouraging, preaching, working at a food bank or simply writing blogs. Our life is in that water. Our thoughts, words and actions are all energised from the spiritual well. Without it, we are dry sticks with human thoughts and activities, who could quickly go awry. We wonder why we have life troubles.
Besides reading and studying, we must keep the outflow of daily praise and thankfulness and worship of our Saviour fresh and plentiful. It helps maintain the stream of living water gushing into the taps connected to every facet of our lives. This endless spiritual well overflows, enriching us totally, but only if the water main is coupled-up and flowing. If it is turned off our spiritual house runs entirely dry, just as my house ran dry today.
Most of our messes, arguments, and disappointments arise from this lack of water. When Jesus said, "Come unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest." (Matthew 11:28), He was speaking as the water of life—the well that never runs dry. When that water flows consistently, it washes away many of those troubles, because the fruit of the Spirit—love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness and self-control, are delivered in that water.
Today's prayer:Dear Lord, I have dried out at times due to being lazy in worship, reading and helping. I would much prefer the inpouring of living water, so please guide and help me ignore procrastination and other desires which take me away from my main goal of being soaked in your Spirit.
Photo by Patrick Pahlke
Comments