Last month we talked about quenching our soul-thirst and the excuses that often keep us from turning to Living Water.
Find part one of this two-part series here.
My husband is a pediatrician here in Arizona, so part of every visit involves asking parents and kids if they are drinking enough water. Some kids throw out every excuse in the book!
“Water is boring!”
“It doesn’t taste good.”
“I’m not that thirsty.”
“I’m not like other people, I don’t need that much water.”
The hard scientific facts are that our bodies can only go about 3-4 days without water. Water helps with so many basic functions: it regulates body temperature, protects organs and tissue, aids the kidney and liver, lubricates joints, carries nutrients and oxygen to cells… you get the idea! Water is important. Water is life! Truth be told, once we feel thirsty, we are already dehydrated! We have to be so careful living in a desert where our summer temps average around 110 degrees. Dehydration can set in just after an hour.
Did you know that we can also experience spiritual dehydration? We were designed to thirst for God. But instead of turning to the Living Water, we frequently turn to a faulty substitute. Like a marathon runner grabbing soda for his long journey, our substitutes don’t make sense!
My favorite food is chips and salsa AND ranch. (Go ahead, raise your eyebrows.) But I dare you… mix the ranch and the salsa, dip your chip, and then get back to me. I love it. But this is also a very, very dangerous delicacy to love. I am notorious for eating multiple baskets of chips and salsa prior to the arrival of my meal at restaurants. By the time my food arrives I’ve filled up on carbs and don’t have room for any of the things my body actually needs. Tortilla chips may fill me up for a while, but they certainly won’t satisfy or sustain me for long. Darn you, chips and salsa!
Jeremiah 2:13 says “My people have committed two sins: They have forsaken me, the spring of living water, and have dug their own cisterns, broken cisterns that cannot hold water.”
Jeremiah laments with the Lord that the Israelites have made faulty cisterns. Picture a well with a hole in it. Check out this verse in The Message:
“Stand in shock, heavens, at what you see! Throw up your hands in disbelief—this can’t be!”
God’s Decree.” My people have committed a compound sin: they’ve walked out on me, the fountain Of fresh flowing waters, and then dug cisterns— cisterns that leak, cisterns that are no better than sieves.” Message
The Israelites spun their wheels and worked to an end that simply would not satisfy. How often do I fill up on the chips and salsa of this world and forget what will actually satisfy my every need?
Isaiah 55:2 reads, “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 fair.”
This world is full of some amazing diversions, but there has to be more than Snapchat and following celebrity gossip. There IS so much more! Jesus said in John 10:10 that He has come to bring the abundant life.
We choose everyday whether we will try and fill up on substitutes or the Living Water. My hope is that we learn to drink what is good and satisfying (God’s Word and His presence) and not fill up on the fluff of this world. Come to the banquet table ready to feast!
“As the deer pants for streams of water, so my soul pants for you, O God. My soul thirsts for God, for the living God. When can I go and meet with God?” Psalm 42:1-2, NIV
What happens when you choose living water? Life. Growth. Health. Rest. Satisfaction.
YOU ARE THIRSTY. What are you choosing to drink? Take time to refresh your soul.
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