Water for the thirsty sounds like a rescue mission in the middle of the wilderness. Drinking water is ubiquitous in the Western world. Spiritual water is not. Consider Jesus’ comments to the woman at the well.
13 Jesus answered, “Everyone who drinks this water will be thirsty again, 14 but whoever drinks the water I give him will never thirst. Indeed, the water I give him will become in him a spring of water welling up to eternal life.” 15 The woman said to him, “Sir, give me this water so that I won’t get thirsty and have to keep coming here to draw water.” The woman just doesn’t understand what Jesus is saying. His metaphor about God’s grace and the gift of eternal life goes right over her head. She doesn’t see her thirst all. The gospel bounces right off her forehead because she sees no need for it. She is still thinking about wet stuff in a glass not the balm of healing found on the pages of Scripture and the lips of our Savior.
Water in a glass satisfies for a few hours. The living water from Jesus fills the soul for eternity. Jesus says that it wells up inside. Don’t think that you will no longer hunger and thirst for righteousness and forgiveness. As long as you live in a sinful world with sinful flesh tempted constantly by the devil you will long for the thirst quenching power of the gospel. Jesus point was to compare the two. Water in a glass and the living water of God’s love. Psalm 42 tells us As the deer pants for streams of water, so my soul pants for you, O God. 2 My soul thirsts for God, for the living God. When can I go and meet with God?
As you witness don’t think of yourself as a little kid at a lemonade stand on a busy street corner charging a nickel for a glass. Picture the people in a marathon who are constantly handing glass after glass to the people running past. All you do is pass out the water. The Holy Spirit will make it bubble up inside and satisfy the soul. Thirsty people need to drink.
Want to hear more? Watch this week’s message taken from John 4 – the third in our Lenten series – Our Greatest Needs: Water for the Thirsty.
Book(s): John
Series: Our Greatest Needs
Tag(s): evangelism, Lent
Speaker(s): Fred Guldberg