All tagged water
So many time I have felt the hands of Jesus as He washed my feet. I have come to Him for forgiveness only to find that His response would be “Sit down.”, and He would proceed to wash my feet as He spoke with me of life, death, forgiveness, and eternity.
Are there sins in our lives that the Lord must remove by fire? Do we hold on so tightly to them, or have they become so deeply rooted, that the only way to remove them is to burn them out? I think of a couple examples today of purification by fire. The first is Isaiah who spoke unclean Things among a people who commonly did the same. When he came into the presence of God he realized he was sinful and the smell of smoke caused him great fear... because he felt as though God might destroy him for his transgression... Do we have sins that cause us to feel this way too?
How parched are those who wander lost in the desert? How dry are their tongues, and how incredibly thirsty are they who pant, and thirst? What wouldn’t a man who is dying of thirst not do for a single drink of even rancid water from a stagnant pool? Well, it is similar for those of us who are lost in spiritual deserts, only here we find that although Satan tempts us with the filthy water of false gods, our soul longs for the righteous taste of living water. Jesus speaks to us of such amazing living water, and immediately we long for it, but how can we go about finding it? Where can we quench the deep thirst of our soul, and how can we resist the desperate temptation of a dying man to sip even the rancid water offered by the dark one? Well, only God can give us such water because living water flows from Jesus, His Son, and only His Word can help us fend off the temptation to drink from the poisoned pools that Satan offers us.
In this world that is parched by sin we once longed to quench our thirst with a refreshing drink of living water. We thirsted for God and Jesus Christ in this wilderness of human suffering that included both our body that had been made like leather in the heat, and our soul that had become hardened like a sponge in a dry land. However, now we have found the well, and know where our help comes from, our help comes from the Lord. We sought, and now walk, refreshed by His grace. From the well of Christ we draw our cool drink, and fill our skins with life… living water. Yet having found Him, do we horde Him, or do we mercifully offer the water of life we have found to others who still thirst?
Have we built a dam across our heart to hold back the flow of the Holy Spirit? Is our intention that the Spirit be made full in us by stopping its flow, and making it a deep lake of living water within us? Regardless of our intentions, this gift, this wonderful river, is meant to gush forth and water the world. Do we allow it to flow from us? Do we share this spiritual water with others so that it will bring them life… an eternal life that quenches their spiritual thirsts, and satisfies us as the cool water of our faith runs freely from within us to cleanse the world, and glorify God?
When we go about trying to earn our own way into Heaven, or win eternal life for ourselves by doing good deeds, it might temporarily make us feel better about who we are, but such efforts have little to no effect on our salvation. These are called dead works, and although all good deeds have some intrinsic value, these deeds are a hollow attempt at creating our own version of redemption. Only through Jesus Christ can we come to God, and truly be cleansed of the sin and guilt that has plagued mankind since his fall in the Garden of Eden.
What is it that causes us to move, most of the time it is because where we are has become uncomfortable, and in this way the allure of the slightest good beckons us to come. Most of us like to remain where we feel comfortable, and once we have put down roots we are reluctant to change, but not changing also means not growing. The shepherd knows this bout his sheep, and God knows this about us, so the shepherd drives his sheep to new pastures, and the Lord urges us towards a stronger faith with every storm we encounter.
By the spiritual death of our old selves in Christ we are made to rise again, and to embrace eternal life. This is a cycle of life, death, and rebirth which is repeated many times over throughout God’s creation, and this is the template we were born to follow. We die as one person to sin, but by our death, and subsequent rebirth, we are raised a new creation, and give rise to many others who will follow us and be born in the image of God, and reborn into the perfection of His righteousness... just as we have been.
You are a Christian, but do you feel rivers of living water flowing from your heart? If you have opened yourself up to the Holy Spirit, and are being led by Him, then you are most certainly a spring from which living water bubbles up to cover the earth, and will quench the thirst of many who are parched by walking through the world’s unrighteous desert that surrounds them.