We have all been there at one time or another. See if this sounds familiar to you.
There you are, busily working on some project or task that requires your full concentration. All of the elements are just right and you are ‘in the zone.’ Ideas are flowing, amazing headway is being made and time has all but stopped when, seemingly out of nowhere, that deep down dryness develops in your mouth and throat. You try to ignore it, but the more you do the more insistent it becomes. With more focused concentration, you return to your task, determined to push through to the end. However, a relentless tickle develops in your throat and unable to disregard the nagging dryness for one second longer, you run to the refrigerator or the kitchen tap in search of your favorite beverage. You voraciously – hungrily - gulp down swallow after swallow of the cold, refreshing liquid hoping to slake this terrible thirst as quickly as possible so you can resume work on your project before either the inspiration and/or the energy fully abandons you.
In developed countries, we take a consistent, abundant and potable water supply for granted.
In many areas of the world, they do not have this luxury. Throughout the history of our world, whenever a source of good water was located, people would congregate and communities would build up around it. If the source dried up or was contaminated with salt or other fowl tasting element, people would leave it in search of a more reliable source of cleaner – sweeter - water.
God, who is our infallible source for all things human, tells us in His Word that just as a salt spring cannot produce fresh water, so too we should not both praise God while cursing men.
James 3:9-12 “With the tongue we praise our Lord and Father, and with it we curse men, who have been made in God’s likeness. Out of the same mouth come praise and cursing. My brothers, this should not be. Can both fresh water and salt water flow from the same spring? My brothers, can a fig tree bear olives, or a grapevine bear figs? Neither can a salt spring produce fresh water.”
How often have we all refused to let go of some past hurt, ill treatment, unmet expectations or disappointment as we continue to rain down negative talk onto the head of the one who caused this pain and left us haunted with these painful memories?
One common feature of both water and the tongue is that they can be either life-encouraging or else life-diminishing.
Proverbs 18:21 “The tongue has the power of life and death.”
As can be seen in the above verse, there is not a distinction made between the speaker and the one to whom the words are being spoken about. Life - or death - can come to us through the words that we speak.
Matthew 12:34b “For the mouth speaks what the heart is full of.”
Christ came so that we could have life if we so choose.
John 10:10 “The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy; I [Jesus] have come that they may have life, and have it to the full.”
Thirst has another definition besides a desire to drink. It also means to have a strong craving;
to yearn.
In the secret recesses of ‘you,’ what is that you yearn for when you are alone and still with your thoughts? What is that unquenchable thirst that leaves you searching for fulfillment that you have, so far, been unable to find?
John 4:13-14 “Jesus answered, “Everyone who drinks this water [from Jacob’s well] will be thirsty again, but whoever drinks the water I give them will never thirst. Indeed, the water I give
them will become in them a spring of water welling up to eternal life.””
Christ longs to give you this living water that only He can supply. It alone will quench your
thirst as you travel through your wasteland. And once you accept it, you will have everything you need for true refreshment in every area of this life: forgiveness for past deeds (both done
by and to you), help for the present, and unflinching, unchangeable hope for the future.
Isaiah 43:18, 19 “Forget the former things; do not dwell on the past. See, I [God] am doing a new thing! Now it springs up; do you not perceive it? I am making a way in the desert and streams in the wasteland.”
Revelation 22:17b “Let the one who is thirsty come; and let the one who wishes take the free gift of the water of life.”
The choice is yours: salt water or sweet water; death or life. Bring your cup. He’s waiting for you.
(For more information about forming a relationship with the Lord, see How You Can Find Him located at the top of this page.)
There you are, busily working on some project or task that requires your full concentration. All of the elements are just right and you are ‘in the zone.’ Ideas are flowing, amazing headway is being made and time has all but stopped when, seemingly out of nowhere, that deep down dryness develops in your mouth and throat. You try to ignore it, but the more you do the more insistent it becomes. With more focused concentration, you return to your task, determined to push through to the end. However, a relentless tickle develops in your throat and unable to disregard the nagging dryness for one second longer, you run to the refrigerator or the kitchen tap in search of your favorite beverage. You voraciously – hungrily - gulp down swallow after swallow of the cold, refreshing liquid hoping to slake this terrible thirst as quickly as possible so you can resume work on your project before either the inspiration and/or the energy fully abandons you.
In developed countries, we take a consistent, abundant and potable water supply for granted.
In many areas of the world, they do not have this luxury. Throughout the history of our world, whenever a source of good water was located, people would congregate and communities would build up around it. If the source dried up or was contaminated with salt or other fowl tasting element, people would leave it in search of a more reliable source of cleaner – sweeter - water.
God, who is our infallible source for all things human, tells us in His Word that just as a salt spring cannot produce fresh water, so too we should not both praise God while cursing men.
James 3:9-12 “With the tongue we praise our Lord and Father, and with it we curse men, who have been made in God’s likeness. Out of the same mouth come praise and cursing. My brothers, this should not be. Can both fresh water and salt water flow from the same spring? My brothers, can a fig tree bear olives, or a grapevine bear figs? Neither can a salt spring produce fresh water.”
How often have we all refused to let go of some past hurt, ill treatment, unmet expectations or disappointment as we continue to rain down negative talk onto the head of the one who caused this pain and left us haunted with these painful memories?
One common feature of both water and the tongue is that they can be either life-encouraging or else life-diminishing.
Proverbs 18:21 “The tongue has the power of life and death.”
As can be seen in the above verse, there is not a distinction made between the speaker and the one to whom the words are being spoken about. Life - or death - can come to us through the words that we speak.
Matthew 12:34b “For the mouth speaks what the heart is full of.”
Christ came so that we could have life if we so choose.
John 10:10 “The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy; I [Jesus] have come that they may have life, and have it to the full.”
Thirst has another definition besides a desire to drink. It also means to have a strong craving;
to yearn.
In the secret recesses of ‘you,’ what is that you yearn for when you are alone and still with your thoughts? What is that unquenchable thirst that leaves you searching for fulfillment that you have, so far, been unable to find?
John 4:13-14 “Jesus answered, “Everyone who drinks this water [from Jacob’s well] will be thirsty again, but whoever drinks the water I give them will never thirst. Indeed, the water I give
them will become in them a spring of water welling up to eternal life.””
Christ longs to give you this living water that only He can supply. It alone will quench your
thirst as you travel through your wasteland. And once you accept it, you will have everything you need for true refreshment in every area of this life: forgiveness for past deeds (both done
by and to you), help for the present, and unflinching, unchangeable hope for the future.
Isaiah 43:18, 19 “Forget the former things; do not dwell on the past. See, I [God] am doing a new thing! Now it springs up; do you not perceive it? I am making a way in the desert and streams in the wasteland.”
Revelation 22:17b “Let the one who is thirsty come; and let the one who wishes take the free gift of the water of life.”
The choice is yours: salt water or sweet water; death or life. Bring your cup. He’s waiting for you.
(For more information about forming a relationship with the Lord, see How You Can Find Him located at the top of this page.)
RSS Feed