Thirst for Living Water

“Whoever believes in me, as the Scripture has said, streams of living water will flow from within him.” John 7:38 Belief is a strange thing, you may believe in one thing but then do something completely different.

This morning around 7 am as we look out across the Dead Sea my first thought is wow it’s hot out here and that Dead Sea does look very refreshing. Then Eric dives into talking about how yes it does look very refreshing and cool just like things of this world appear to “cool” or maybe even “refreshing” and they tempt us. We discovered yesterday after swimming in the Dead Sea that it actually leaves you feeling very slimy and not very refreshed. It deceives us just like world can. What I picked up from this lesson was to choose the living water in a world where the things that tempt us choose everything but that.

Our many hiking adventures today really have opened my eyes to two things that my body thirsts for in the desert; shade and of course water. Many times I go to the biggest tree I see, but a Bedouin Shepard in the dry desert is best friends with a tree that does not bring but a small amount of shade. They choose this tree because it’s the only one they usually have and it offers some shade, food, and warmth. The food that falls from this tree, are these little pods with seeds inside that they feed to their camels. They create warmth by collecting the sticks that have fallen from the bottom of the tree and starting a fire. This tree is what we as believers should be to the world, a refuge from the heat, food to fill them up, and warmth in a cold dark world.

I think as followers of Christ it is easy to forget about the light we are entrusted with. We associate it as just religion instead of it being our joy, our refuge, our food when we cannot get full in the world, and warmth when we feel cold in our heart. So how do we overcome this temptation to forget about the light the REAL light and love we have in our hearts and just make it our religion? Eric discussed Psalm 1 when he answered a question similar to this. ”Blessed is the man that walketh not in the counsel of the ungoldly nor standeth in the way of sinners, nor sitteth in the seat of the scornful. But his delight is in the law of the Lord and in his law he mediates on it day and night.” Psalm 1:1-2. I learned that to truly be the light of the word we must hunger and thirst for the word of the Lord, we must devour it like a lion devours his prey. We must be eager and passionate to not only read God’s word, but to know Gods word and memorize it because when we truly dwell on the word of God it makes us the light we were created to be.