The Names of God

  Fountain of Living Waters

"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."  Jeremiah 2:12-13

 

"If anyone thirsts, let him come to Me and drink," said Jesus. "He who believes in Me, as the Scripture has said, out of his heart will flow rivers of living water." John 7:37-39

Are you thirsty for God? Do you long for the abundant, Spirit-filled life He offers to those who will trust and follow Him? Then listen to His invitation:

"Ho! Everyone who thirsts, come to the waters;
And you who have no money, come, buy and eat.
Yes, come, buy wine and milk without money and without price.
Why do you spend money for what is not bread,
And your wages for what does not satisfy?
Listen carefully to Me, and eat what is good,
And let your soul delight itself in abundance....
Hear, and your soul shall live;

and I will make an everlasting covenant with you." Isaiah 55:1-3

God's call goes out to His loved ones both in strange and familiar places. When Jesus stopped on His way through Samaria to talk with a social outcast - a despised, immoral woman - his disciples were confused. But Jesus had sensed her thirst and longed to bring new life into her lonely existence.

"Whoever drinks of the water that I shall give him will never thirst," He told her. "But the water that I shall give him will become in him a fountain of water springing up into everlasting life." John 4:14

How can we, like her, accept His offer? How can we drink, not once but continually, from the cleansing, healing waters of life?

First, we have to come to Him hungry and thirsty, poor and "without money." For His life-giving water can neither be bought nor earned. He paid the full price on the cross. Any offer of payment in return for His gift would be an insult to the great heavenly Giver.

In fact, no earthly payment could match the worth of God's living water. Thousands of dreamers have sought a mythological fountain of youth, but God offers something incomparably greater: His Holy Spirit along with a heavenly inheritance, a never-ending spring of life.

Through His persecuted prophet Jeremiah, God tells us,

"Blessed is the man who trusts in the Lord,
And whose hope is the Lord.
For he shall be like a tree planted by the waters,
Which spreads out its roots by the river,
And will not fear when heat comes...."
Jeremiah 17:7-8

Psalm 1 lists additional choices that keep us near His springs. They also guard us against satisfying our God-given thirst with the world's stagnant waters:

"Blessed is the man who 

       • Walks not in the counsel of the ungodly,

       • Nor stands in the path of sinners,

       • Nor sits in the seat of the scornful [mockers];

But his delight is in the law [the Word] of the Lord,

And in His law he meditates day and night.

He shall be like a tree

Planted by the rivers of water,

That brings forth its fruit in its season,

Whose leaf also shall not wither;

And whatever he does shall prosper." Psalm 1:1-6

If I refuse to live by the world's philosophy -- if I put all my confidence in God and continually delight in His refreshing word -- then I grow strong and fruitful like the evergreen tree. As I "draw water from the wells of salvation," He makes me an "oak of righteousness, the planting of the Lord, that He may be glorified!" Isaiah 12:2,  61:3. 

Fanny Crosby, the amazing blind hymn-writer whose songs have lifted thousands of hearts to heaven, lived daily by those life-giving waters.  Her songs continue to echo in my heart, reminding me to come to Jesus, follow His way, drink from His fountain and be filled with His life:  

All the way my Savior leads me
Cheers each winding path I tread,
Gives me grace for every trial,
Feeds me with the living Bread.
Though my weary steps may falter
And my soul athirst may be,
Gushing from the Rock before me,
Lo! A spring of joy I see;
Gushing from the Rock before me,
Lo! A spring of joy I see.

My Lord, I come to drink from your healing, life-giving waters. Take me and fill me. Let rivers of living water flow from my innermost being to other thirsty and needy ones. Thank you, precious Fountain of Life.

References:  Psalm 36:9; Proverbs 13:14, 14:27; Isaiah 12:3, 44:3, 49:10, 61:3;

Jeremiah 2:13, 17:13, 31:12; John 4:6-26, 7:37-39; Revelation 21:6.

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