Water – It’s something most of us take for granted. We turn on the tap and out it flows, clear, cool and refreshing. But in many parts of the world they don’t have this luxury. Consider the following facts from Newsweek.com:
- According to the U.N., 2.1 billion people don’t have safe drinking water at home.
- Of those, 844 million don’t have access to a basic drinking water service, including 263 million people who travel for over 30 minutes per trip to collect water.
- 159 million still drink untreated water—a serious health risk—from surface water sources, such as streams or lakes.
- There are 663 million people who live without a safe water supply close to home.
World Water Day 2018
Thursday was World Water Day 2018. The goal of this annual UN-sponsored event is to focus attention on the importance of properly managing the earth’s limited freshwater resources so everyone can have access to clean water, both for now and in the future. The world faces a major water crisis and we must do something today to assure there will be enough for tomorrow.
A Greater Crisis
As serious as the Earth’s water crisis is, there is a far greater crisis, which affects every human on the planet. We are in the midst of a drought, a drought of Living Water, the Water of Life flowing from the Throne of God.
Unlike the Earth’s water crisis, this drought is not caused by a limited supply or finite resources. As the song says, God’s Well, “never shall run dry.” There is more than enough Living Water available for all. The problem is with us.
Broken Cisterns
Jeremiah 2:13 says, “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.”
With a bottomless reservoir of Living Water to be found in God’s Word, we:
- Are like my cat, who would rather drink from the toilet than from his own dish.
- Try to satisfy our thirst by drinking from the cesspools of our own creation, when Jesus is calling out to us, “If anyone thirsts, let him come to Me and drink.” (John 7:37)
- Like the woman at the well, keep seeking for things which cannot satisfy, instead of drawing from God’s “well that never shall run dry.”
A Work to Do
As Christians, we have a responsibility to work to assure an abundant supply of clean water is available for all of Earth’s inhabitants for years to come. After all, as James 2:15-16 points out, it doesn’t do much good to tell someone to “Depart in peace, be warmed and filled,” if we do “not give them the things which are needed for the body.”
As important as that work is, however, we have an even greater work to do. We must become channels for God’s Living Water to flow in abundance on those who thirst. Instead of broken cisterns, we must become “a fountain of living water springing up into everlasting life.” John 4:14.
In order for us to do this, we must drink deeply of God’s Word for ourselves on a daily basis. We must pray for the Holy Spirit to be poured out in power on us and our churches. Until we do this, our churches will be nothing more then broken cisterns, empty and good for nothing, with no power to quench the world’s thirst. We must first be filled before we can fill another.
Thirst No More
Matthew 5:6 promises, “Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they will be filled.” And John 4:14 says, “but whoever drinks of the water that I shall give him will never thirst.” Living Water is ours for the taking, but we must feel our need before we can be filled.
Do you thirst for the Living Water? Do you long for something more than the broken cisterns this world offers? Then “the Spirit and the bride say, ‘Come!’ And let him who hears say, “Come!” And let him who thirsts come.” Revelation 22:17
Come and lift your cup into the healing stream which flows from the cleft of the Rock. Drink freely from the Water of Life. Then lift the cup of another that you may both Thirst No More!
God bless and Happy Sabbath!