You need a drink

Have you ever felt tired and worn out? Have you ever stopped and asked yourself the rhetorical question, “when will this end?” Your “this” may be different to mine, but we all find ourselves worn out, exhausted and feeling depleted from time to time. So what do we do? Do we take time off work and go to a remote island for a few weeks? I mean, if you can, why not? Haha! Sometimes a little break or holiday helps, but I find that usually when I am in that place, there is no amount of “relaxing” that will take the weariness away. What I need is a drink of living water.

What tends to happen is that the busier we are, the less time we have to spend with God. And when we do spend time with God, our minds are distracted by the thousand things that we need to do. Which means as much as we are physically tired, we are also spiritually depleted. So where do we go for a drink of living water?

Isaiah 55:1-3 says, “Listen! Are you thirsty for more? Come to the refreshing waters and drink. Even if you have no money, come, buy, and eat. Yes, come and buy all the wine and milk you desire— it won’t cost a thing. Why spend your hard-earned money on something that can’t nourish you or work so hard for something that can’t satisfy? So listen carefully to me and you’ll enjoy a sumptuous feast, delighting in the finest of food. Pay attention and come closer to me, and hear, that your total being may flourish. I will enter into an everlasting covenant with you, and I will show you the same faithful love that I showed David.”

Sometimes we try to quench our thirst for Jesus with other things, but they will never satisfy. What we need is a drink from God. 1 Corinthians 10:3-4 says, “‘They [the Israelites] all ate the same heavenly manna and drank water from the same spiritual rock that travelled with them—and that Rock was Christ himself.”

The Israelites drank from the spiritual rock [Jesus] that travelled with them. Pausing there for a second, the rock, Jesus, travelled with the Israelites. Did you know that God is with you? When you are a child of God, God is with you wherever you go. That means no matter where life takes you, you have the Rock to turn to. No matter what valley you are in, the Rock is with you. If you are in a desert or a dry place, the Rock will give you water to drink.

How does God do this? He does it by His Presence. Acts 3:19 says, “And now you must repent and turn back to God so that your sins will be removed, and so that times of refreshing will stream from the Lord’s presence.”

So, there is something we must do if we are to be refreshed in the Presence of God. That is to repent of our sins. Why is this? Because sin stands between us and God and creates distance when God is trying to bring us close. Not because God thinks you are disgusting or shameful, no. That’s not it. (God’s thoughts towards us, crazy as it may seem, are always good. Our own thoughts towards us are never always good but God’s thoughts are.) It’s because our own conscience causes us to step back from God and instead of hiding ourselves in the Rock, we hide from the Rock and cannot drink of His living water.

So, when we get in the Presence of God, things may come up that God wants to deal with, let Him do it because it will be good for you. Repent, that is change how you think about that situation. Turn away from the sin, do a 180-degree turn. Go the opposite way. Once you have repented and all the junk is moved out of the way, you will then have times of refreshing streaming from the Presence of God.

It takes a conscious effort on our part. We need to make time to be in the Presence of God. If we want to drink from the well that never runs dry, we need to go to the well and drink. God doesn’t say if we are thirsty He will bring water to us. The water is always available it’s up to us to go and drink. Make time to sit and be refreshed in the Presence of our beautiful Saviour, Jesus, our Rock.

John 7:37 says, “Then on the most important day of the feast, the last day, Jesus stood and shouted out to the crowds— “All you thirsty ones, come to me! Come to me and drink! Believe in me so that rivers of living water will burst out from within you, flowing from your innermost being, just like the Scripture says!” Jesus was prophesying about the Holy Spirit that believers were being prepared to receive…” We have access to living water and we can go and drink anytime we are thirsty. When we do this, we have rivers of living water flowing out of us (Holy Spirit) and those around us are refreshed.

Love and blessings,

Melissa Tsingano.