The Living Water Well

It is definitely summertime in Texas, where the temps are hovering around 100 degrees. When it gets hot, there are two things we can do: either embrace the heat or avoid it.

If you’re like me, you probably avoid it as much as possible by staying indoors in the cool air-conditioning with a glass of pink lemonade! (Of course, this choice is doing nothing for my tan.) Or if you’re like my in-laws, you may avoid it by vacationing in a cooler place, like the Colorado Mountains. If you stay a month like they do, you can not only avoid the heat, but avoid a high electricity bill, too. Pretty smart!

The other choice we have when it gets hot is to embrace it. Those who do this will usually draw near to a body of water – like a lake, an ocean, or a swimming pool – and have an ice chest of water handy. They know their bodies were not made to endure excessive heat too long. They must keep their temperature down and body hydrated.

There are other kinds of heat that we experience in life. Financial struggles. Relationship issues. Work stress. When we experience such things, guess what. We handle these kinds of heat in the same two ways – by avoiding or embracing.

We often avoid the heat of life by withdrawing, hiding, secluding ourselves from the issue, from family and from friends. If we do this for too long, we may find ourselves lonely and depressed. It then becomes easier to befriend things we shouldn’t, like drugs or alcohol or forbidden fellows.

Another way we avoid the heat of life is to take a vacation like my in-laws in a less heated place. It may be a physical removal from the heated situation, or it may be a running away of sorts, taking an emotional or intellectual vacation from the situation at hand. On occasion this may be exactly what the Great Physician orders. But, making a habit of running to work or to hobbies can be a way of escaping rather than embracing a difficult reality.

Instead, God wants us to embrace the heat we find ourselves in, and trust Him to use it to mold us, like metal in a fire. Regardless of how we got in the hot seat, God can use the heat of the fire to burn away our impurities and soften us, making us more pure and pliable for His beautiful use. God will use those heated times to make us more like Christ if we will embrace the heat in the right way. To embrace the heat of life, just like a hot day, we must surround ourselves with plenty of water, the Living Water.

John 7:37-39 says, “Now on the last day, the great day of the feast, Jesus stood and cried out, saying, "If anyone is thirsty, let him come to Me and drink. "He who believes in Me, as the Scripture said, `From his innermost being will flow rivers of living water.' "But this He spoke of the Spirit, whom those who believed in Him were to receive; for the Spirit was not yet given, because Jesus was not yet glorified.”

But now Jesus has been glorified, at the resurrection; and just as He promised he left behind His Holy Spirit, the Living Water, to live in those who believe in Him. Jesus said it will flow from within. When we are walking in a right relationship with God, nothing will stand in the way of the Living Water well flowing freely inside us. It bubbles up to overflowing, so that we may drink from it all the time.

In John chapter 4, Jesus tells the woman at the well, "Everyone who drinks of this water will thirst again; but whoever drinks of the water that I will give him shall never thirst; but the water that I will give him will become in him a well of water springing up to eternal life."

Jesus emphasized we must “drink”. It is an action, and an ongoing one. Even though we are given the deposit of the Holy Spirit, we must choose to drink of His Living Water every day.

On a hot summer day in Texas, a drink of water refreshes our parched mouths, regulates our body temperatures, and replenishes our dehydrated bodies. Similarly, the Living Water – the Holy Spirit of God – will refresh our emotions, regulate our minds and replenish our souls.

When the heat is on, deal with it, embrace it and conquer it by drinking continually from the well of Living Water that God has put inside you!