by Nuru ya Upendo | 10 October 2021 08:46 pm10
The “living water” we read about in the Bible is not just ordinary water from a spring, a well, a river like the Jordan in Israel, nor is it some kind of anointing oil sold around today.
Living water is a spiritual reality that I want us to reflect on deeply today.
In the Gospel of John, Jesus gently introduces the concept of this living water—water that truly satisfies the deepest thirst of the human soul. It’s not water from a physical well.
John 4:5–15 (NIV) recounts this encounter:
“So he came to a town in Samaria called Sychar, near the plot of ground Jacob had given to his son Joseph.
Jesus, tired from the journey, sat down by the well about noon.
Soon a Samaritan woman came to draw water, and Jesus said to her, ‘Will you give me a drink?’
His disciples had gone into the town to buy food.
The Samaritan woman said to him, ‘You are a Jew and I am a Samaritan woman. How can you ask me for a drink?’ (For Jews do not associate with Samaritans.)
Jesus answered her, ‘If you knew the gift of God and who it is that asks you for a drink, you would have asked him and he would have given you living water.’
‘Sir,’ the woman said, ‘you have nothing to draw with and the well is deep. Where can you get this living water?
Are you greater than our father Jacob, who gave us the well and drank from it himself, as did also his sons and his livestock?’
Jesus answered, ‘Everyone who drinks this water will be thirsty again, but whoever drinks the water I give them will never thirst. Indeed, the water I give them will become in them a spring of water welling up to eternal life.’
‘Sir,’ the woman said, ‘give me this water so that I won’t get thirsty and have to keep coming here to draw water.’”
Have you noticed how Jesus clearly distinguishes the water of the well from the living water? The water from the well satisfies physical thirst temporarily, but the living water Jesus offers satisfies the soul forever.
What exactly is this living water?
Jesus Himself explains it further in John 7:37-39 (ESV):
“On the last day of the feast, the great day, Jesus stood up and cried out,
‘If anyone thirsts, let him come to me and drink.
Whoever believes in me, as the Scripture has said, ‘Out of his heart will flow rivers of living water.’’
Now this he said about the Spirit, whom those who believed in him were to receive, for as yet the Spirit had not been given, because Jesus was not yet glorified.”
Here the “living water” is the Holy Spirit—the Spirit of God given to every believer. When we receive the Holy Spirit, our spiritual thirst for sin, for worldly pleasures, and for temporary satisfaction is quenched.
The Holy Spirit fills us with a joy, peace, and righteousness that surpass all earthly desires. Our cravings for sin, such as addiction, immorality, or evil, lose their power because the Spirit satisfies our deepest longings.
This is why receiving the Holy Spirit is so vital for every believer’s life.
However, it’s important to understand that the Bible says this living water is something we buy—not with money or material wealth, but with our lives. When we surrender our lives to Jesus and receive Him as Lord, we pay the cost of owning this living water.
Isaiah 55:1-2 (NIV) invites us:
“Come, all you who are thirsty, come to the waters;
and you who have no money, come, buy and eat!
Come, buy wine and milk without money and without cost.
Why spend money on what is not bread, and your labor on what does not satisfy?
Listen, listen to me, and eat what is good, and you will delight in the richest of fare.”
Notice it says, “Come, buy without money.” The cost is not financial, but the surrender of ourselves to Christ—a spiritual investment.
So here is the question for you: Have you received Jesus? Have you been baptized properly in water in the name of Jesus, signifying your new life in Him? This is the only way to receive the living water.
Jesus invites in Revelation 22:17 (ESV):
“The Spirit and the Bride say, ‘Come.’ And let the one who hears say, ‘Come.’
Let the one who is thirsty come; and let the one who wishes take the free gift of the water of life.”
Do you desire the living water today?
Believe in Jesus, repent of your sins genuinely by turning away from them, and if you haven’t yet, be baptized in His name. This is the path to eternal satisfaction.
Maranatha!
Mada Nyinginezo:
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