Water
Water is life.
I was in my first official 5K yesterday (walk, not run). Before you start, they tell you to drink. During the race there are people handing out glasses of water. After the race there are booths set up to hand out more bottles of water.
Water is the stuff of life. It is essential for your body to work. When people stall in their weight loss, one of the first questions is, “are you drinking enough water?”
Without water there is no life.
God provided water for the Israelites
The whole Israelite community set out from the Desert of Sin, traveling from place to place as the LORD commanded. They camped at Rephidim, but there was no water for the people to drink. So they quarreled with Moses and said, “Give us water to drink.”
Moses replied, “Why do you quarrel with me? Why do you put the LORD to the test?”But the people were thirsty for water there, and they grumbled against Moses. They said, “Why did you bring us up out of Egypt to make us and our children and livestock die of thirst?” Then Moses cried out to the LORD, “What am I to do with these people? They are almost ready to stone me.”
The LORD answered Moses, “Walk on ahead of the people. Take with you some of the elders of Israel and take in your hand the staff with which you struck the Nile, and go. I will stand there before you by the rock at Horeb. Strike the rock, and water will come out of it for the people to drink.” So Moses did this in the sight of the elders of Israel. And he called the place Massah and Meribah because the Israelites quarreled and because they tested the LORD saying, “Is the LORD among us or not?” (Ex. 17)
For us, Jesus is the living water. He brings us out of death and brings us into life.
John 4:10 Jesus answered her, “If you knew the gift of God and who it is that asks you for a drink, you would have asked him and he would have given you living water.”
Water is also strength. It has the power to erode mountains into canyons, soil to silt, houses to rubble.
God is strength. He has the power to block our way, just as the Red Sea blocked the Israelites coming out of Egypt. Why would He do that? To show His strength.
God has the power to erode the hardness of our hearts, in order to bring us to Him – even reducing us to rubble, if need be.
Water is the stuff of life – God provides, God controls. Christ gives us living water.
But there is more.
If we have this living water, what do we do with it? Is “living water” salvation? or is it something else?
The living water is not something that we drink of a single time – no, the living water is with us always!
John 7 tells us
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.” By this he meant the Spirit, whom those who believed in him were later to receive.
The gift of living water is the Holy Spirit that teaches us, that guides us, that fills us, that flows out from us. If we have this living water within us, we cannot help but have it flow out of us, sharing, giving evidence of God’s working in our life.
This is a very precious gift – it is life.
I never want to dry up…
Thanks for this refreshing reminder of what we have inside us.
Congrats on your first official 5k yesterday, you go girl. I enjoyed this post, bless you.
Thank you so much for this wonderful post to me today!
I do not like to drink water, even the whole day without water. I know it is not a good habit, but hard for me to change.
These days I have a split in my lip. So today I make my mind to drink water every day for the health.
But for the living water…..the Holly Sprit…..WE SHOULD DRINK EVERY DAY,EVERY MOMENT,EVERY MINUTE……
My the living water flows in my heart….
Ellen,
The scripture you chose from John is a very precious gift to me. How I need that water. Every minute of every day of my life. This is beautifully written. Thank you.