LIVING WATERS
For the proclamation of the Gospel and the edification of the Body of Christ
Returning to the Fountain
The Christian's life seems to be a haven of still waters. However, this is not so. While it is true that the Lord has placed a river within the believer, there are times when it dries up.
When a man (or woman) is converted to Jesus Christ, by the marvelous grace of God, his whole being experiences a powerful miracle. His life is transformed, his sins are forgiven, and his inner being -his spirit- becomes a torrent of life and joy. His drought -that is, his spiritual dissatisfaction- disappears. The emptiness of his soul has been filled.
However, like Peter who, walking on the sea, began to sink, the believer, who also walks on his own stormy sea, begins to flounder on his path. Then, suddenly, joy gives place to sorrow, peace to affliction, faith to uncertainty, soul-satisfaction to deepest frustration.
The river of God has dried up. As soon as this happens, hunger reappears, thirst again parches the lips, and dissatisfaction takes the reins of the soul. Everything turns out badly, and is disrupted, as before. In the environment, people become unpleasant and even hateful, friends betray him, God has forgotten him -although, to be honest, it is he who has forgotten God-, work becomes intolerable and rest is insipid.
The cause of this is very simple, but still, many of God's children are unaware of it. The Lord Jesus said: "If anyone thirsts, let him come to me and drink ... out of his innermost being shall flow rivers of living water" (Jn. 7:37-38). Thirst is a basic need. The thirst of the soul -better, of the spirit- is even more so. This thirst has no possibility of being quenched other than in Christ and by the Spirit of Christ.
The believer who has lost the feeling of the presence of God, and who has forgotten that God is sufficient, will seek to quench his thirst with a water that does not quench, and to escape from the desert with useless palliatives. This thirst expresses itself in many ways, but all of them involve oppression of the spirit, suffocation of the soul, and even pain in the bones. They all wither the heart of the believer, like the relentless summer sun on the arid land.
If, in his misfortune, he seeks for palliatives other than Christ Himself, he will take a long, dry, arid road where there is no water. He may seek in business, in art, in politics, in work, in pleasures, but all will be useless.
When the river dries up, it is only useful to go to the source. We must go back as far as necessary and reach the place where the waters are born, where life springs forth. Jesus Christ said: "If anyone thirsts, let him come to me and drink". He also said: "Whoever drinks of the water that I will give him shall never thirst". Jesus Christ is the unique and blessed Fountain, where every thirst is quenched and every river is filled with water.