Water

This weekend , due to our Bible study, I have thought a lot about water. More specifically about the water God created and how much I enjoy being around it. I enjoy all types of water....

Rivers and Streams......

Lakes.....

Creeks.....

and especially the ocean......

We have visited the Ocean almost every year while on vacation and each time I become emotional when I see if for the first time and then again when we have to leave it.

We purchased a water fall to sit outside on our deck so we could hear the trickle of water. You can purchase alarm clocks or sound machines which have the sound of "water" for you to listen to. It is obvious water is a soothing substance to most people.

Scripture references several types of water.... streams, rivers, wells, living water, cistern water, springs and fountains. Living water is used to describe the gift of eternal life through Christ and those who drink of the living water will never be thirsty again.

John 4:13, 14 Jesus answered and said unto her, Whosoever drinketh of this water shall thirst again:
But whosoever drinketh of the water that I shall give him shall never thirst; but the water that I shall give him shall be in him a well of water springing up into everlasting life.

Then there is the cistern water which can be dead, stagnant water.

Jer. 2:13 For my people have committed two evils; they have forsaken me the fountain of living waters, and hewed them out cisterns, broken cisterns, that can hold no water.

Sometimes in life I feel as if I have the strength and the talents to do things all on my own (drinking from the dead, cistern water). Most of the time I don't even realize I am doing it. I know I don't purposefully push God aside just so I can do it on my own, it is only when I have messed things up that I realize what I have done.

I feel God created in all of us a desire to seek Him. I think even those who have not found Him yet are seeking and they just don't know what they are searching for. We sometimes try to fill this seeking void with things that cannot satisfy..... materialism, alcohol, drugs, money, success etc. etc.....we can plug just about anything into that sentence.

In Psalm 23 David says "He leads me beside the still waters, He restores my soul".

I feel great peace and serinity when I am near a large body of water, or even the trickle of a small stream. I don't find it ironic in the least that scripture would refer to Christ as living water. I strive to be close to water, and I find relaxation and restoration while near water. I think the same to be true of Christ. We are driven to him and in Him we find peace, serenity, comfort and restoration. He is the well that won't run dry.

In our study we talked about how life can be a desert or wilderness. Our society will make certain things of this world appear to be an oasis but they are false. If we search for restoration in a false oasis of this world we will only find more stress and pain.

We need a place where we can go when we become empty as a parent, a student, a spouse, an employee, a friend, where we can drink from the living water and experience God and feel alive again. During this time God's love becomes a spring in us for other people. If we do not allow ourselves to have this time with God we can become just as stagnant as the cistern water.

I wonder if my attitude is contributing to the heat and dryness of the wilderness to the people in my life or am I a spring of Living Water? Do I find time to allow myself to be full of God's love or do I complain and focus on the negative aspects of life?

My prayer today is for me to reflect the spring of life inside me and not the dead, cistern water which is stagnant and stinky.

Please let me know if I my water is stinky! :)