A few chapters earlier Jesus spoke similar words to the Samaritan woman at the well. Now He stands up in the heart of Jerusalem, on the last day of the Feast of Tabernacles and boldly proclaims to the Jews that He is the source of eternal satisfaction and salvation. And, as always, even to this day, some people believed in Jesus, some rejected His words, and some sought to eliminate Him.
I had to ask myself anew, what is my source of greatest joy? I wrote about this recently, for all too frequently I am that Samaritan woman, but the Lord needs to keep reminding me to come to Him with my thirst. Where do I turn when I need solace or satisfaction? Where do I look for encouragement or wisdom or strength when the day seems long yet the ability and hours inadequate? When I'm thirsty--a thirst that this world cannot seem to satisfy--from which well do I consistently drink deeply?
To my shame and sorrow, I far too often seek a lesser source of satisfaction... which ironically always leads to greater thirst. Or I simply grow dejected and defeated, because I'm seeking satiation and satisfaction from things that were never meant to slake our thirsty souls.
Yet here's one marvelous thing about growing older--you tend to recognize much more quickly when you are drinking from the wrong well. Praise God I'm nowhere even close to perfect... but I'm progressing! I'm starting to see when I'm seeking satisfaction in achievements or accolades or accumulation of material things. And by the grace of God, I'm quicker to run to Him and His Word to quench my thirst and satiate my thirsty soul.
Because don't we all want "rivers of living water" to flow from our hearts? I'm tired of hearing words of discouragement or frustration or discontentment flow from my heart and my mouth (for "out of the overflow of the heart, the mouth speaks." Luke 6:45). I want to be a joyful, kind, wise, loving wife and mother and friend. Boy, how often I miss the mark. The only way to be that joyful, contented woman is to be filled with His Living Water. And that means drinking deeply, thirstily, daily from Him and His Word and experiencing the filling and flowing of His Living Water.
His living water fully satisfies, fully sanctifies, fully strengthens. And there is absolutely nothing else like His living water in this world, or any world. Malcolm Muggeridge, the great British author and journalist, expressed it this way:
"I may, I suppose, regard myself, or pass for being, a relatively successful man. People occasionally stare at me in the streets--that's FAME.
I can fairly easily earn enough to qualify for admission to the higher slopes of the Internal Revenue --that's SUCCESS.
Furnished with money and a little fame even the elderly, if they care to, may partake of trendy diversions--that's PLEASURE.
It might happen once in a while that something I said or wrote was sufficiently heeded for me to persuade myself that it represented a serious impact on our time--that's FULFILLMENT.
Yet I say to you--and I beg you to believe me--multiply these tiny triumphs by a million, add them all together, and they are nothing--less than nothing, a positive impediment--measured against one draught of that living water Christ offers to the spiritually thirsty, irrespective of who or what they are."
Amen, Lord! Help us daily, hourly, seek that draught of Your Living Water instead of all the paler, poorer substitutes that our thirsty souls tend to run to so blindly. Might we come to You and be fully satisfied... and then might Your Living Water flow from our hearts to the thirsty world around us. Make us salty believers so that others also seek to quench their thirst in You. Thank You, Lord, for quenching ours. To our God, our Living Water, be all the glory.
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