Thoughts on the Water of Life

Jesus told the woman at the well, “Ask me and I will give you living water that you will never thirst again.”  The Bible is full of the water of life images.  Revelation tells us that heaven has a river that flows through it with the water of life.  Psalm 1 speaks of the image of a tree planted by the water that will give its fruit in its season.  The cities of Israel are often defined by the wells that sit at their centers, such as Jacob’s well.

A praise song I learned long ago speaks of this.

“Here’s my cup, Lord, I lift it up, Lord, come and quench this thirsting of my soul!”

In West Texas where I spent some years growing up, it is often dry, even to the point of being desert.  Because of this, it was one of the last places in Texas to be settled, but then a discovery was made.  If one dug deep enough into the flint-filled, almost concrete colechie ground, one could find water.  This water came from an aquifer that was over a thousand square miles, a deep-ground lake of water that had probably been filled thousands of years ago.  It is almost unlimited.  But there is one problem — if someone pumps too much, too quickly, even a well with abundant water can go dry.  When this happens, the farmer or rancher must wait a day, a week or longer, and the well will eventually be replenished with fresh water from the aquifer.  Even though the water source is almost unlimited, the well’s ability to contain it is not.

The source of life-giving water that is God is unlimited.  But our ability to contain that living water is not.  When we begin to dry up, often having taken for granted the source, we must find time and ways to allow our inner “well” to be replenished.  In this fast-paced culture, we often lose the place that allows this to happen, and we fail to realize that we are trying to survive on dust.  When folks are living on dust, often bad decisions are made, emotions get fractured, souls become lifeless and the plan and purpose of God for abundant living gets lost.

Time, prayer, the Bible, simple Christian friendships, service and worship are where the life that is the water of God seeps into the hearts and souls of us all.

“Here’s my cup, Lord, I lift it up, Lord, come and quench this thirsting of my soul!”