The Bible has a lot to say about water. I actually wrote a whole devotional guide called “Life-Changing Water: Chaos to Glory: A Metaphor Study.” The Bible has 742 references to water in it, from snow to floods to springs, to cisterns, to floods and droughts. In the Christian life there can be times of chaos when everything is off balance, to times of abundance and freshness when the living water is very present, to times of desert and deprivation (sort of like winters in Florida when rain is scarce), to times of flood and destruction and suffering.
Jesus calls Himself living water. When we come to Him, He promises life-giving change and His very Presence. God provided Him, the incarnate, to live with us, to show us how to live this life well, and challenges us to drink from that living water and live.
Man makes choices, big and little decisions, to stray from that well, to do his or her own way, to wander, to pursue wide highways and supposed opportunity rather than walk the narrow path to the well for daily fulfillment. Here’s the way God told Jeremiah, the great prophet, that life sometimes works when man disobeys the God who created and wants to sustain Him: “For My people have done two evil things: They have forsaken Me–the fountain of living water. And they have dug for themselves cracked cisterns that can hold no water at all.” (Jeremiah 2:13) That shows me that we have a choice: to depend on our own flawed resources, or to turn to Him and stay close to the well. One leads to disaster and wandering, always looking for more “water” to make us feel good, or sit by the well, listen to His teachings, and thrive.
This is “My Pssalm 235–Coming to the Well
My Heavenly Father, Holy of Holies,
I am unfit to come into Your Presence. I am unworthy, wholly undone, filthy in my selfishness.
I have not tamed my passions,
I am self-centered, entitled, and guilty of what You call sin.
But I now know I have a Savior
Who loves me as I am.
For that I praise Your Name,
And dare approach Your throne.
They tell me of Your forgiveness.
They say You take my sins so far from me
That the East does not know the West.
They tell me that I am now
Washed in the atoning blood of the Lamb,
And while I don’t fully understand the concept,
I know the need all too well.
They tell me that even when I do the right things
My heart-motives condemn me
And all I do is like filthy rags.
Or worse, empty sepulchers,
Dead, useless, vile in Your sight.
So, Abba, Father, if I dare call you that,
Will you, this very minute, cleanse me
Wash me whiter than snow,
And condemn me no more to this wretched life
I’ve lived before know You?
Will You bring me to the springs of Living Water,
Bathe me in Christ’s righteousness,
For I have none of my own?
Will you continuously bring me to the well
Where I have found the Living Water,
My new life, my sustenance, my whole existence?
Will you answer my questions,
Teach me Your Way, everlasting,
And use me as You wish for Your Kingdom?
May I have the assurance that You hear this prayer,
That You forgive my sins,
That You adopt me as Your own,
That I will live a life fit for Your kingdom,
That I will know the Holy Spirit’s Presence
As I seek to follow?
Thank You, Lord. Help my unbelief,
And bring me Your blessed assurance.
In Jesus’ Name. Amen
Scripture references: John 4:14, Psalm 40:3, Lamentations 3:22, 2 Corinthians 5:1, Romans 64,
Hebrews 10:16-22, I Peter 1:3-8, Exodus 14:21-22, 2 Kings 2:19-22.
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