What Do You Do When You Crave Living Water?

We all have those days when fatigue runs rampant. We wonder how we will keep ourselves together, let alone care for someone else. How do we manage through challenging times when energy is thin and things are awry?

Jesus had His share of up and down days. Ministry wasn’t easy in the cultural and political climate of His day. Yet, no matter what was going on, He kept on, teaching and offering care.

In John He shares some amazing words that bring hope to our weary spirits:

“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. Whoever believes in Me, as the Scripture has said, streams of living water will flow from within him.’” (John 7:37-38 NIV)

These are challenging times for Jesus. The opposition against Him is growing and many seek to undermine His teaching and ministry. Jesus actually attends the Feast of Tabernacles in secret at first, waiting for the right time to show Himself and speak. He chooses to begin teaching near the end of the Feast when the crowd is larger. He stands up in the crowd and delivers His words in a commanding voice, beckoning people to pay attention to His important message.

As He often does, Jesus uses examples from life around the people to illustrate His point. In this case He talks about water. This particular Jewish Feast has a daily procession of priests with water that is later poured on the altar; therefore, water is something on people’s minds. The Old Testament is filled with examples of God talking about His provision in terms of providing water (see the Psalms and Isaiah), so it is an analogy that makes sense to the Jewish people. Jesus also used the concept of living water when talking to the woman at the well where He used it to show her thirsty soul how to gain eternal life in heaven with Him.

But John 7:38 takes the living water concept a bit farther. It’s not just having the Holy Spirit (the living water) dwell in us; it’s that streams of living water will flow from us as believers as well.

How does it flow through us? This new life in Christ and the Holy Spirit working in our lives should make our faith evident to others. God’s living water provides us with direction and guidance for daily living. It makes Jesus a priority and time with Him essential. It encourages us to look for opportunities to love and serve others and share God’s message of love and salvation.

I know, at times, I have tried to quench the “thirst” in my life with the wrong things, just like the woman at the well and many others. There are also many in today’s world who thirst for salvation but don’t even realize that is what they are missing.

Our hungry and thirsty souls are only satisfied through the living Word, which is Christ and the written Word, which is the Bible. Yet how often do we push these two means of satisfaction aside and then wonder why we feel “thirsty”?

But just like we don’t deprive ourselves of drinking water as we need it to survive, so also, we shouldn’t go without God’s living water either or we deprive our souls. Through it He changes each of us on the inside. It is only through His living water that we are able to face the challenges of life.

Living water brings abundance to us but it also brings responsibility. It needs to be shared. As I go out into this world, I pray that God will bring forth His abundance and blessings and use me as His instrument. May it be so with you as well. Crave God’s living water and thirst no more.

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