A Real Thirst Quencher

"Today's Devotion" For March 23, 2006

Read: John 4:7-15; Psalm 42

A REAL THIRST QUENCHER

"Everyone who drinks this water will be thirsty again, but whoever drinks the water I give him will never thirst. Indeed, the water I give him will become in him a spring of living water welling up to eternal life." (John 4:13, 14)

Walk into any convenience store, go to its beverage coolers, and you will see a vast array of beverages. Sodas, juices, juice drinks, milk,specialty beverages and water are the main selections. Beer and wine are also often available. Have you ever noticed how many different types of water there are? It's incredible. Modern science (supposedly)has brought us purified water, mineral water, distilled water, flavored water, sports water, fitness water, and enhanced water. We bottle spring water and sell it as a replacement for tap water because people fear the supposedly unnecessary and potentially harmful chemicals and minerals it contains. Selling water is big business, a billion dollar industry, in which the price of a gallon of bottled spring water - major brand - can run as high as $9 a gallon, better than three times the current cost of a gallon of gasoline.

The bottled water/fitness water craze only succeeds because people get thirsty. While there are many types of beverages one can drink, some healthy, others not so healthy, there is still no substitute for the thirst-quenching, body cleansing and hydrating qualities of the water God created for our benefit. Yet, because human nature always believes we can do things better than God, we've done everything we can to enhance water and make it more beneficial (and palatable - it can be awfully bland by itself), to our bodies needs - at least by our estimation. No matter how much "better" we "make" water, the end result is that we're still thirsty, we still need to have it, and we can't live without it. We always have to have a source of water, whether in the desert or on the lakeshore, in order for us to hydrate our bodies, clean out the wastes, and keep alive.

The story of the Samaritan woman and Jesus at the well in the Samaritan town of Sychar illustrates our need for yet another kind of "water" that is absolutely necessary for human life. When the woman came to draw water from Jacob's Well, Jesus met her with a request for a drink of water. Her response, based on the ethnic and racial prejudices of the day, was one of incredulity. She questioned why Jesus, a Jew, would want to have, according to the feelings of that day, an inferior Samaritan give Him a drink. But, Jesus request opened a far more important door than a discussion of ethnic and racial relations. Stepping into her question, Jesus fielded it with this response, "If you knew the gift of God and Who it is that asks you for a drink, you would have asked Him and he would have given you living water" (John 4:10).

Jesus' gift of "living water" is just as powerful a promise today as it was to the Samaritan woman at Jacob's Well. Jesus promises that His gift of "living water" will "become a spring of water welling up to eternal life." Through the power of His Word and Spirit our Lord Jesus continues to give us that same "living water," showing us the way to eternal life with the Father through faith in Jesus' suffering, death, and resurrection. Each day that hope of heaven through faith in Jesus fills our hearts and lives so that our spiritual thirst is quenched in a spiritually arid world. In Holy Baptism - the washing of the "Water" and the Word - the Holy Spirit cleanses us from our sins, bringing us God's forgiveness and peace, and fills us with the "living water" that leads us to eternal life. Our spiritual thirst is quenched in Jesus. He gives us life, abundantly here on earth, and forever with Him in heaven. More than that, His gift of "living water" becomes a spring within us so that it wells up in our hearts and souls to not only sustain our lives in Him and our hope of heaven, but to leap out from us to others so they, too, might have their spiritual thirst quenched by Jesus.

Prayer: Father, I thank You that You have given me the hope and promise of eternal life in Jesus. My thirsting soul and spirit are filled with the "living waters" of Your love grace, mercy, and forgiveness in Jesus. Keep me ever mindful that I need that "living water" every day in a spiritual arid world, so that I might always have hope and peace in Jesus. As Jesus' words and promise of "living water" touched the life of the Samaritan woman at Jacob's Well, send Your Spirit upon me in abundant measure that that same "living water" might touch my life and well up as a "spring of water...to eternal life." Let my life be a "spring of living water" that burst forth daily to shower Your love, grace, mercy, and forgiveness upon others as I live for You and point others to Jesus; in whose precious and most holy name I pray. Amen.
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--Pastor Boeck

Copyright © 2006 Rev. Richard J. Boeck, Jr. All rights reserved.