During hot weather like this, you keep hearing it. “Stay hydrated!” Why? Because it is easy to get dehydrated in the heat and not even realize it.
It is not a needless warning. Water is critical to life. Our body depends on water to survive. Every cell, tissue, and organ in our body needs water to work properly. Dehydration can be a serious condition leading to life-threatening illnesses such as heat stroke.
“If you’re well hydrated,” says one specialist, “your heart doesn’t have to work as hard.”
If water is so essential to our physical body, isn’t it a good analogy of how much our spiritual life needs the water of life? Yes, that is the right KIND of water, the “water of life.” This is the water that Jesus will be giving to all who are qualified and thirsty—thirsty for the ETERNAL blessings. Hear His promise:
Revelation 21:6 6And he said unto me, It is done. I am Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the end. I will give unto him that is athirst of the fountain of the water of life freely.
Those blessed ones will be spiritually hydrated with the “water of life”—IMMORTALTY—for ever!
But that is future. What do we do NOW to get spiritually hydrated?
We need to:
1) Find Right SOURCE of water
2) Be THIRSTY
What is the right SOURCE for this special water? Our thoughts go quickly to the water Jesus offered the woman at Jacob’s well. Water was precious in the land, and wells needed to be deep to carry through long, hot and dry seasons.
Let’s review the meeting with “the heavenly Stranger at Jacob’s well.”
Jesus was traveling through Samaria when he came to
John 4:5 5…a city of Samaria which is called Sychar, near the plot of ground that Jacob gave to his son Joseph. 6Now Jacob’s well was there. Jesus therefore, being wearied from His journey, sat thus by the well. It was about the sixth hour.
Imagine a well built up with stones, surrounded with few trees, and Jesus sitting down by the well to rest after walking for hours.
One added thought: Jesus certainly wouldn’t have needed rest and refreshment if He was God!
Continuing, verse 7:
7A woman of Samaria came to draw water. Jesus said to her, “Give Me a drink.”
A strange question, thought the woman from Samaria. Why would he, a Jew, even speak to her?
John 4:9 9Then the woman of Samaria said to Him, “How is it that You, being a Jew, ask a drink from me, a Samaritan woman?” For Jews have no dealings with Samaritans.
Jesus was always taking an opportunity to teach a lesson. Aren’t we thankful? This lesson was written for us because we all need to stay hydrated.
But at that moment, the Samaritan woman couldn’t understand. Verse 10:
John 4:10 10Jesus answered and said to her, “If you knew the gift of God, and who it is who says to you, ‘Give Me a drink,’ you would have asked Him, and He would have given you living water.”
If you knew who you are talking to, Jesus said. “If…!” Think what she was missing…the greatest meeting of her life!
Wouldn’t we have loved that privilege, those moments with Jesus? To have the opportunity to ask HIM for a draft of His “living water”! Think what He could have shared of the “life-giving water” that flowed from His fountain!
But at that moment, the woman couldn’t get beyond the natural water.
John 4:11 11The woman said to Him, “Sir, You have nothing to draw with, and the well is deep. Where then do You get that living water? 12Are You greater than our father Jacob, who gave us the well, and drank from it himself, as well as his sons and his livestock?”
She sensed that Jesus was not just a common Jew. He must have showed the authority He commanded. She immediately compared Him to the greatest person in her mind—Father Jacob.
Jesus’ answer draws from the depths of His “well,” a well full of God-certified promises. Verse 13:
13Jesus answered and said to her, “Whoever drinks of this water will thirst again,
Natural water.
14but whoever drinks of the water that I shall give him will never thirst. But the water that I shall give him will become in him a fountain of water springing up into everlasting life.”
She picked up the key points: “never thirst” again. And the one who receives this water will have IN HIMSELF a “fountain of water” —a fountain would not need a bucket to draw; a fountain springs up on its own. And THIS fountain would be springing up on and on and on into “EVERLASTING LIFE!”
This had to be a new thought for the woman. Could she take it in? Hardly. Whether she took it in or not, now she realized Jesus had something far superior to literal water. It was something “out of this world,” as she saw it. Yes, she would try it! At least it would make her life easier.
John 4:15 15The woman said to Him, “Sir, give me this water, that I may not thirst, nor come here to draw.”
Was this woman thirsty? That is the next question, and we are not told, but water is never truly appreciated until one is thirsty. Really thirsty. Recall that proverb:
Proverbs 25:25 25As cold waters to a thirsty soul, So is good news from a far country.
Turn to the Psalms, and we find one who was REALLY thirsty. So thirsty that he compared himself to a panting deer running toward the water brook.
Psalm 42:1–2 1As the deer pants for the water brooks, So pants my soul for You, O God. 2My soul thirsts for God, for the living God. When shall I come and appear before God?
The Psalmist says, When can “I come and appear [appear, approve, behold, come joyfully] before God?
He longed to be approved in God’s presence, to bring Him honor and respect. Why was his longing so deep? Why was he so thirsty for God? Because he knew God was the ONLY source of his life, both now and in the future.
David had no other source. WE have no other source. Do we realize how totally DEPENDENT we are on God for our very life now? We can’t stay hydrated without this spiritual water. The more we drink of this water of life, the greater will be our thirst for God and all that ONLY God can give. This is the thirst Jesus promised to fill:
Matthew 5:6 6Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, For they shall be filled.
Filled with spiritual water from the heavenly fountain.
David longed to stay hydrated. He expressed his deep thirst in another Psalm.
Psalm 63:1 1O God, You are my God; Early will I seek You; My soul thirsts for You; My flesh longs for You In a dry and thirsty land Where there is no water.
Isn’t that what we see today? “A dry and thirsty land where there is no water”—none! All dry and dusty. No water around that will support spiritual life.
The need is desperate, but, sadly, most people aren’t thirsty. Or if they are, they don’t know it. The water of life isn’t being handed out in the churches, and it surely isn’t available in the shopping malls. The businesses won’t market a product nobody wants. So… the land is dry and languishing.
But here and there one is thirsty. Like David. Hear his plea:
Psalm 63:1–3 …My soul thirsts for You; My flesh longs for You In a dry and thirsty land Where there is no water.2So I have looked for You in the sanctuary, To see Your power and Your glory. 3Because Your lovingkindness is better than life, My lips shall praise You.
God’s lovingkindness is better than life. Why? Because this life is temporary. David wants to stay hydrated with the ETERNAL.
If we are not staying hydrated, God is not responsible for the lack. Think about what Israel did. God had his prophet Jeremiah relay this message to the people.
Jeremiah 2:13 13“For My people have committed two evils: They have forsaken Me, the fountain of living waters, And hewn themselves cisterns—broken cisterns that can hold no water.
God provided the best. Being “the fountain of living waters,” God had an ever-flowing fountain of living water to give! Did the people take it thankfully and say, “You’ve given us the very BEST”? No, they flatly turned down God’s supply. Worse still, they went and dug out cisterns of their own. Cisterns only hold the water that is poured into them, a real contrast with a fountain. The water in a cistern is typically stale and dirty.
Then their home-made cisterns were—broken! So with all the effort at getting their OWN water supply and avoiding God’s, they ended up with: NO water!
We need to be taking the water from God’s fountain, and then we will have it to offer to others. Hear the Psalmist again—and this passage you will recognize as quoted by Paul:
Proverbs 25:21 21If thine enemy be hungry, give him bread to eat; And if he be thirsty, give him water to drink:
But the day is coming when people will begin to realize their need. They will be thirsty, and God will supply—abundantly. Hear His promise:
Isaiah 44:3 3For I will pour water upon him that is thirsty [that is God’s promise for now, in this age], And floods upon the dry ground [in the future]: I will pour my spirit upon thy seed, And my blessing upon thine offspring:
Think about that. What a promise! Water now, wherever one is thirsty, and FLOODS on the dry ground in the future when a whole new generation of Millennialites from all over the world come seeking the knowledge of God!
Habakkuk 2:14 14For the earth shall be filled with the knowledge of the glory of the Lord, As the waters cover the sea.
Now we are commissioned to hand out this spiritual water when someone is thirsty.
Revelation 22:17 17And the Spirit and the bride say, Come. And let him that heareth say, Come. And let him that is athirst come. And whosoever will, let him take the water of life freely.
Do we realize God has trusted us with this priceless water of life, cool, refreshing, hydrating? Every drop of it is sacred, clean, uncontaminated. Let us never be ashamed to share it. It is the most precious product in the whole world. People think they have “holy water”? This is the real “holy water,” fresh from heaven, life-giving water from Jesus, His own “words of eternal LIFE” (John 6:67-68). Lessons, examples, warnings, instructions written for us—it is all priceless.
STAY HYDRATED with this life-giving water. Drink it all day long, every day. You can never get too much of it.
STAY HYDRATED with this water, and look forward to LIVING.
Forever!