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A PORTRAIT OF JESUS

 

    Quenching the Thirst in our Heart

                                         

 

“If anyone thirsts, let him come to me and drink. Rivers of living water will brim and spill out of anyone who believes in me...”  John 7:37-38

                  

      It is the Feast of Tabernacles and the Jews have come to Jerusalem to remember their miraculous deliverance out of Egypt.  One of the ceremonies during this weeklong feast was when the religious leaders led a procession carrying a gold pitcher full of water drawn from the pool of Siloam to the Temple where it was poured on the ground, reminding them of God’s miracle in providing them with water in the dry desert wilderness. The Jews were looking back on how God had provided all their needs and looking forward to their complete deliverance by the promised Messiah. Jesus was really telling them here that He is the Messiah and invites the thirsty ones to find Living water in Him, promising that they would never thirst again.

 

      How could this be? All that we need to do is believe that Jesus is the Living water God has provided.  True belief will actively respond to something we know to be true, and Jesus wants us to do more than just know in our heads that He will fill us; He wants us to invite Him fully into our heart and trust Him for everything.  The life that the thirsty seek is love, joy and peace, and is found only in a relationship with our Heavenly Father through the Lord Jesus. Trying to be filled in other places and ways only leaves us still thirsty and staring at the broken and empty cisterns that this world offers.  Jesus is the fountain of Living waters; a never-ending source of such water.  All other “waters” are polluted, and will only leave us with a continued thirst and empty hearts.

 

      Jesus knew that those at this feast were thirsting for a full life and really desired to satisfy that thirst.  He offered them just what they were longing for: Living Water, abundant and free; and all they had to do was truly believe.  Jesus makes this same offer today.  Are you thirsty?  Do you long for a life of blessing?  Then look to Jesus, not to the leaky, filthy cisterns of this world.  The promise He made long ago can be yours, and “streams of water will flow out from you.”  When Jesus lives within us we will be fully satisfied and His love will pour forth from our hearts, just as in a living spring to others and we will never thirst again!  May we drink daily from the Life-giving water -  Jesus!                                              

                                                                                     D. Mathewson