Have you ever been thirsty – and I mean really really thirsty? I remember my daughter telling me of a trip she and her husband made out to the desert area outside of Las Vegas. They had not prepared for the excursion, and did not have any water with them. There was no water anywhere near available for sale, and they got extremely thirsty. They realized they should have prepared - you would never go to a desert without bringing water - right? Just like we should never expect to go into the world to fight evil, to stave off evil - without being prepared.
Our bodies need water. See, without water, we become dehydrated, which then affects our kidneys, our skin, and even our thinking.
I have to laugh, because there is a song that I love that my parents used to play all the time – Jimmy Swaggert’s record – “There is a River”. So – for this post – I was going to copy the lyrics because in my mind, and when I sing along to it in my car – I thought it said – there was a thirsty woman, she was drawing from the well, see her life was ruined and wasted, and her soul was “parched and dry”. BUT – when I looked up the lyrics to copy and paste – it said her soul “was bound for hell”.(I even wear hearing aids and I STILL heard Parched and Dry!!) I’m so disappointed!! But – for the sake of this post – we will pretend the lyrics are her soul was parched and dry. Our souls – they DO get dry. Because for so many of us – at different times – will try to run with our souls dehydrated. We run on empty. Anybody out there let their gas get down to the fuel light coming on? Or heaven forbid – beyond the light coming on? I have a “sister” that I love dearly, and she has let her gas run completely out multiple times. (hand in face emoji right here!)
Anybody running their souls on empty? Not stopping to fill your tank with the Living Water that God provides? See, just like being dehydrated affects our bodily functions, letting your soul run dry affects your spiritual heart functions. It allows us to have bad outlooks, feel unworthy and unvalued; it allows us to forget the joy and peace that God provides to us – when we allow Him to pour His love, His peace, His mercy, and His joy into us. You can’t expect to lead a joy-filled abundant life without getting filled. You can’t pour out love, grace, mercy, joy, peace to others if you don’t have your heart full of God’s love, grace, mercy, joy, and peace.
Are you running on empty? Maybe fumes? You know – just like a car that runs dry will have to crawl if not be pushed into a gas station, when you let your soul run dry, it will often take some event or action to get you back to God – to your source of all of the abundant life that God offers.
Today in Sunday School we studied about having God’s presence in our lives, and what that means – what it looks like.
If you feel empty, you probably are. Let your Savior pour His love and living water into you
John 4:4-26 To get there, he had to pass through Samaria. He came into Sychar, a Samaritan village that bordered the field Jacob had given his son Joseph. Jacob’s well was still there. Jesus, worn out by the trip, sat down at the well. It was noon. A woman, a Samaritan, came to draw water. Jesus said, “Would you give me a drink of water?” (His disciples had gone to the village to buy food for lunch.) The Samaritan woman, taken aback, asked, “How come you, a Jew, are asking me, a Samaritan woman, for a drink?” (Jews in those days wouldn’t be caught dead talking to Samaritans.)
Jesus answered, “If you knew the generosity of God and who I am, you would be asking me for a drink, and I would give you fresh, living water.”
The woman said, “Sir, you don’t even have a bucket to draw with, and this well is deep. So how are you going to get this ‘living water’? Are you a better man than our ancestor Jacob, who dug this well and drank from it, he and his sons and livestock, and passed it down to us?”
Jesus said, “Everyone who drinks this water will get thirsty again and again. Anyone who drinks the water I give will never thirst—not ever. The water I give will be an artesian spring within, gushing fountains of endless life.”
The woman said, “Sir, give me this water so I won’t ever get thirsty, won’t ever have to come back to this well again!”
He said, “Go call your husband and then come back.” “I have no husband,” she said.
“That’s nicely put: ‘I have no husband.’ You’ve had five husbands, and the man you’re living with now isn’t even your husband. You spoke the truth there, sure enough.”
“Oh, so you’re a prophet! Well, tell me this: Our ancestors worshiped God at this mountain, but you Jews insist that Jerusalem is the only place for worship, right?”
“Believe me, woman, the time is coming when you Samaritans will worship the Father neither here at this mountain nor there in Jerusalem. You worship guessing in the dark; we Jews worship in the clear light of day. God’s way of salvation is made available through the Jews. But the time is coming—it has, in fact, come—when what you’re called will not matter and where you go to worship will not matter.
“It’s who you are and the way you live that count before God. Your worship must engage your spirit in the pursuit of truth. That’s the kind of people the Father is out looking for: those who are simply and honestly themselves before him in their worship. God is sheer being itself—Spirit. Those who worship him must do it out of their very being, their spirits, their true selves, in adoration.” The woman said, “I don’t know about that. I do know that the Messiah is coming. When he arrives, we’ll get the whole story.”
“I am he,” said Jesus. “You don’t have to wait any longer or look any further.”
Psalms 139
1 You have searched me, LORD, and you know me.
2 You know when I sit and when I rise; you perceive my thoughts from afar.
3 You discern my going out and my lying down; you are familiar with all my ways.
4 Before a word is on my tongue you, LORD, know it completely.
13 For you created my inmost being; you knit me together in my mother’s womb.
14 I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made; your works are wonderful, I know that full well.
23 Search me, God, and know my heart; test me and know my anxious thoughts.
24 See if there is any offensive way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting.
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