What we allow into our lives is what we dispense to others. What’s in your cistern?
Water is essential to your health. It can be quite boring, so I like to spice mine up with some lemon or maybe some ground up coffee beans. But the most important part is that your water is clean, uncontaminated. Left untreated, your water could contain pollutants from the air or the soil. Microorganisms, inorganic chemicals, and even organic chemicals could make you extremely sick.
Because we can go to the store and buy bottles or place filters on our faucets, we are protected for the most part from bacteria, viruses, and Giardia in our water. In ancient times of southern Israel, however, people collected rainwater in deep pits as their supply of drinking water. Maintaining cisterns was vital to their health. Therefore, water was often an analogy that the biblical writers used when representing life.
Jesus used water as an illustration when He taught about eternal life. In John 3, the water of baptism represented new life in Christ. The woman at the Samaritan well in Sychar (John 4) was offered “living water,” that is life abundant in Jesus. Yet, the most powerful use of water in the teaching of Jesus is found in John 7:37: “On the last day of the feast, the great day, Jesus stood up and cried out, ‘If anyone thirsts, let him come to me and drink.'”
Jesus proclaims the Gospel message and His invitation to believe this message by stating anyone who believed could drink of His water. This invitation was for all who heard, including the religious leaders and their followers. But the prerequisite was concrete. Unless one was thirsty, he or she could not drink. We come to Christ when we understand our desperate need for His life-giving water.
Our faith in Christ is not passive, but active. We must drink. We must believe in Christ. A dehydrated person must decide to “drink” the water. Just as a refusal to drink water when one’s body is depleted, a refusal to drink from the fountain of “living water” that Jesus provides will lead to spiritual death.
When we drink of Jesus’ water, that is the life He offers, there is a change in our heart. What goes in, also flows out.
The first signs of dehydration include extreme thirst, weakness, and dizziness. Those who are searching for hope, direction, and strength find spiritual water that is as refreshing as a mountain spring of cool, refreshing water. “Come to me” is a call our Lord and Savior makes to people today.
What’s in your cistern?
Questions to Ponder:
1. What are you drinking?
2. Are you thirsty for life?
3. Are you being filled daily with the “living water” of Christ by spending time with Him, praying, studying His Word, connecting with other believers, walking obedience by submitting to His Lordship, and making disciples of Him by investing in the lives of others?
Prayer for Today: Ask God to quench any degree of thirstiness you have with the refreshing water of Christ Jesus.
If you missed the first two days’ posts, below are the links:
Day 1
Day 2
Link to the Sermon I preached (12/27/15) on this topic.
Shepherding Well 