Springs of living water
- Jacob Ninan
"Whoever drinks of the water that I will give him shall never thirst; but the water that I will give him will become in him a well of water springing up to eternal life" (Jn.4:14). Jesus said similar things in Jn.6:35 and 7:38. When we have yielded our life to Jesus trusting in Him and the Holy Spirit dwells in our heart, this living water will meet our spiritual need in different situations of life. In other words, the Holy Spirit will bring to our mind words of truth that can comfort, encourage, guide, teach and correct us according to our particular need (Jn.14:26). Not everyone can receive this help except those who have been born again (Jn.3:3). All of us were born in sin (Ps.51:5;Ep.2:1) and our spirit was dead (disconnected) towards God. But when we acknowledged our sins, confessed them to God and received forgiveness by trusting in the death of Jesus in our place God regenerated our spirit. Then we got connected with God and were made His children. Now we can receive all the help that He has provided in His word through His Spirit working in us.
Does it happen that someone shares God's word with us and we don't find any help there? Perhaps it was not the right word for us at that time. But perhaps it is true that we are unable to hear the living words that God is speaking to us because we have no connection with God! There may be comfort and encouragement in the word but for us it is meaningless because our eyes and ears have not yet been opened to God.
It may also be that we could hear God at one time in our life but have lost touch with God over time. We may have taken Him for granted or we may have strayed away from Him slowly (Mt.13:22). We may have neglected nourishing ourselves daily with spiritual milk and meat and got into the habit of praying only in time of need (1Pe.2:2;He.5:14). We may never have developed the ability to receive strength from God through His word or we may have lost it through lack of use. In this case it wouldn't be fair to turn to God and complain about Him not being around when we need or not answering our prayers.
God has provided all things we need for our life through His word, the Holy Spirit, the church and fellowship with other believers. But one mistake we human beings make is to blame everyone else, everything else and even God for all our problems, and never thinking of looking to see what we may have done wrong or failed to do. Instead of working with what God has given us, we sit passively and expect everything to go smoothly without problems or we look for solutions that will simply take away our problems. What we don't see is that God is in the process of transforming our nature through the Holy Spirit using God's word, and this can happen only if we respond to Him in the trials of life, seek after Him, and receive and use the help that He provides. Instead of going after things that won't last, why don't we drink from the fountain of living waters (Je.2:13)?