Wednesday, Dec 11

Scripture: John 4:10-11 (NIV) – “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?’”

Jeremiah: 2:13a (NIV) - “My people have committed two sins: They have forsaken me, the spring of living water,”

Zechariah: 14:8a (NIV) – “On that day living water will flow out from Jerusalem,”

John 7:38 (NIV) – “Whoever believes in me, as Scripture has said, rivers of living water will flow from within them.”

Revelations 7:17of living water.’”

Message: There are figurative and actual droughts. We all pass through them in our lives. We have seasons of drought in our personal and prayer lives from time to time. And there are the very obvious droughts that we can see in the nature that surrounds us.

Just like much needed rain can restore a field or vineyard or orchard and give it new or renewed life, the same is true of the “Living Water” that Jesus refers to in the passage from John 14-10 and many others. He will end personal drought.

When we made our annual trip north to Vermont for the fall, the signs of drought, literal drought, were everywhere. Plants, once hardy and lush in the fall, were in many cases dead. And what wasn’t dead had been eaten to the ground by wildlife. Hostas, day lilies and 6 ft tall hydrangeas all fell victim. The urge to survive overcame the animals’ usual distaste for these plants.

The actual drought was easy to see. I was a bit slower to make the connection between the actual drought and the spiritual drought that only “Living Water” could quench. As I read daily devotionals and passages from my Bible, I felt like I was reading about “Living Water” almost daily (It is mentioned 6 times in the Bible – 2 in the Old Testament and 4 in the New Testament.)

We can’t escape periods of drought in our lives. The droughts that occur in nature and in us personally are reminders that, in both cases, He can end the drought.

Prayer: Heavenly father help us to remember that in times of drought we have but to turn to You for Your gift of “Living Water”. Amen.

Kim Showalter