Devotional: Living Water
“As the deer pants for the water brooks, so pants my soul for You, O God.
My soul thirsts for God, for the living God. When shall I come and appear before God?”
- Psalm 42:1-2
If you are a dog owner or you like dogs, you know that every breed was designed for a purpose. My dog, an Australian Shepherd, is bred to herd animals and be a shepherd. Our other dog is an American Bully, and he was designed for companionship – which is what he does best. A dog like a Pointer or a Labrador Retriever is designed for hunting and retrieving, and Dobermans are commonly used for police work. When a dog is doing what it was bred to do, it is most content because it is fulfilling what it was made to do.
Similarly, we are also designed by God for a purpose, and that purpose is to be in relationship with Him and glorify Him through our existence (Read Titus 2:11-14; 1 Corinthians 10:31; Ecclesiastes 12:13; Micah 6:8).
When we try to fulfill our purpose in any other way, it will continually feel like something is missing in our lives. We can aim to have earthly accomplishments (which God has also intended for us to have), but it is only by cultivating a relationship with God and living for Him that the deepest needs of our existence will be satisfied.
St. Augustine of Hippo said, “Our hearts are restless until the rest in You.” He couldn’t be more accurate, and he is essentially reiterating the first verse of Psalm 42.
Our souls are thirsty for the living God. Many people, including we as Christians, are able to distract ourselves from this spiritual thirst. It’s easy to do: numb ourselves through TV, scrolling social media, being consumed with work, going out to drink, etc. The list is truly never-ending. But at the end of the day, we all have to confront the drought in our souls at one point or another.
Remember that story in the New Testament when Jesus talks to the woman at the well? He wittingly used the analogy of water to help her (and us) understand who He was and His purpose.
This is what Jesus told her in John 8:13-14: “Whoever drinks of this water [from the well] will thirst again, but whoever drinks of the water that I shall give him will never thirst. But the water that I shall give him will become in him a fountain of water springing up into everlasting life.”
Additionally, in John 7:38, Jesus says, “Whoever believes in me, as the Scripture has said, ‘Out of his heart will flow rivers of living water.’” Once we drink of the Living Water (by believing in Jesus), we will never thirst (spiritually) again because we will always have access to the Living Water, which is the Holy Spirit residing in us. This promise provides rest and assurance because we don’t have to keep searching far and wide for something to satisfy us; we have it once we believe.
As you’ve already noticed, the Holy Spirit/Jesus/God is compared often to water. Why? Water is essential to the survival of humans because our bodies are 60% water. As a result, most people can only survive about three days without water until dying from dehydration. It makes sense why God used this physical analogy to compare how He operates with us spiritually. If our bodies can’t survive without water, neither can our souls.
In the Old Testament, we see many comparisons of the Holy Spirit to water:
Isaiah 12:3 says, “With joy you will draw water from the wells of salvation.”
Jeremiah 2:13 says, regarding Israel’s continued disobedience, “For my people have committed two evils: they have forsaken me, the fountain of living waters, and hewed out cisterns for themselves, broken cisterns that can hold no water.”
Isaiah 55:1 prophesies about the coming of the Holy Spirit: “Come, everyone who thirsts, come to the waters; and he who has no money, come, buy and eat! Come, buy wine and milk without money and without price.”
Zechariah 13:1 also prophesies: “On that day there shall be a fountain opened for the house of David and the inhabitants of Jerusalem, to cleanse them from sin and uncleanness.”
The verses go on and on. Therefore, when Jesus spoke of living waters, the New Testament Jews should have been familiar with the Old Testament scriptures and recognized that Jesus was from God. He was proclaiming that the time had come for the fulfillment of these prophecies. Sadly, many Jews that Jesus encountered were blind to see the comparison.
Furthermore, the book of Revelation proclaims this nature of Jesus:
In Revelation 21:6, Jesus says, “It is done! I am the Alpha and the Omega, the beginning and the end. To the thirsty I will give from the spring of the water of life without payment.”
Revelation 7:17 tells us, “For the Lamb in the midst of the throne will be their shepherd, and he will guide them to springs of living water, and God will wipe away every tear from their eyes.”
Revelation 22:1 reveals what John saw: “Then the angel showed me the river of the water of life, bright as crystal, flowing from the throne of God and of the Lamb.”
Revelation 22:17 says, “The Spirit and the Bride say, ‘Come.’ And let the one who hears say, ‘Come.’ And let the one who is thirsty come; let the one who desires take the water of life without price.”
Take a moment: What does understanding the comparison of water and the Holy Spirit help you recognize?
It’s an open-ended question.
Maybe it reminds you that we are nothing without Jesus.
Maybe this helps you see the connection God has always made throughout the Bible, being the Living Water.
Maybe this helps you contemplate why water baptism is something Christians do when they first believe.
Maybe you realize you’ve been drawing from a different well for satisfaction, not the One inside of you.
Ask God to show you what He wants to teach you from this. Trusting in Him to be your life-source is what it means to live by faith.
-Alina