"If anyone thirsts,
let him come to Me and drink," said Jesus. "He who believes in Me, as the Scripture has
said, out of his heart will flow rivers of living water."
John 7:37-39
Are you thirsty for
God? Do you long for the abundant, Spirit-filled life He offers to those who will trust
and follow Him? Then listen to His
invitation:
"Ho! Everyone who thirsts, come to the
waters;
And you who have no money, come, buy and eat.
Yes, come, buy wine and milk without money and without price.
Why do you spend money for what is not bread,
And your wages for what does not satisfy?
Listen carefully to Me, and eat what is good,
And let your soul delight itself in abundance....
Hear, and your soul shall live;
and I will make an everlasting covenant with you."
Isaiah 55:1-3
God's call goes out to His loved ones both in strange and
familiar places. When Jesus stopped on His way through Samaria to talk with
a social outcast - a despised, immoral woman - his disciples were confused. But
Jesus had sensed her thirst and longed to bring new life into her lonely
existence.
"Whoever drinks of the water that I shall
give him will never thirst," He told her. "But the water that I
shall give him will become in him a fountain of water springing up
into everlasting life." John 4:14
How can we, like her, accept His offer? How can we drink, not once but continually,
from the cleansing, healing waters of life?
First, we have to come to Him hungry and thirsty, poor
and "without money."
For His life-giving water can neither be bought nor earned. He paid the full
price on the cross. Any offer of payment in
return for His gift would be an insult to the great heavenly Giver.
In fact, no earthly payment could match the worth of
God's living water. Thousands of dreamers have sought a mythological fountain of
youth, but God offers something incomparably greater: His Holy Spirit along with
a heavenly inheritance, a never-ending spring of life.
Through His persecuted prophet Jeremiah, God tells us,
"Blessed is the man who
trusts in the Lord,
And whose hope is the Lord.
For he shall be like a tree planted by the waters,
Which spreads out its roots by the river,
And will not fear when heat comes...."
Jeremiah 17:7-8
Psalm 1 lists additional choices that keep us near His
springs. They also guard us against
satisfying our God-given thirst with the world's stagnant waters:
"Blessed is the man who
•
Walks not in the
counsel of the ungodly,
•
Nor stands in the path
of sinners,
•
Nor sits in the seat of
the scornful [mockers];
But his delight is in the
law [the Word] of the Lord,
And in His law he meditates
day and night.
He shall be like a tree
Planted by the rivers of
water,
That brings forth its fruit
in its season,
Whose leaf also shall not
wither;
And whatever he does shall
prosper."
Psalm 1:1-6
If I refuse to live by the world's philosophy
-- if
I put all my confidence in God and continually delight in His
refreshing word -- then I grow strong and fruitful like the evergreen tree. As I
"draw water from the wells of salvation," He makes me an "oak of
righteousness, the planting of the Lord, that He may be glorified!" Isaiah 12:2, 61:3.
Fanny Crosby, the amazing blind hymn-writer whose
songs have lifted thousands of hearts to heaven, lived daily by those
life-giving waters. Her songs continue to echo in my heart, reminding me
to come to Jesus, follow His way, drink from His fountain and be filled with His
life:
All the way my Savior leads
me
Cheers each winding path I tread,
Gives me grace for every trial,
Feeds me with the living Bread.
Though my weary steps may falter
And my soul athirst may be,
Gushing from the Rock before me,
Lo! A spring of joy I see;
Gushing from the Rock before me,
Lo! A spring of joy I see.
My Lord,
I come to drink from your healing, life-giving waters. Take me and fill me. Let rivers
of living water flow from my innermost being to other thirsty and needy ones. Thank
you, precious Fountain of
Life.
