If just a Cup of Water
Image by Esther L.
Have you ever been SOOO thirsty? SO thirsty that it was hard to swallow and you just felt so parched and exhausted? I have. One time that really stands out in my memory as a time when I was so exhausted from thirst was when I was 10 years old. How did I get so thirsty? Well, the short story is that I was exploring one of the cities that was destroyed by sulphur/brimstone (recorded in the book of Genesis) with my Dad. The rest of the family was too hot and tired, so they had sat down to rest in the shade of an ashen building.
My Dad and I continued exploring and it was so interesting and amazing! We even found and excavated some sulphur balls that didn't completely burn!
It was HOT, somewhere around 110-120 degrees farenheit as I recall, and it was really windy too. I learned how an umbrella is such a luxury in the desert, something I hadn't really thought of before! I drank my water, and we decided to go back. We returned to where our family had been resting--and they weren't there. Thinking that perhaps they had returned to the parking lot, we ventured to hike back out of the destroyed city to where there were a bunch of lovely date palms planted, and where we thought they might be waiting for the tour bus.
Well, when we made it back up--we didn't see them anywhere. I was so hot. So tired. We had been walking for miles in the hot sun and my water was gone. Not finding them there, my Daddy decided to go back down into the "city" to look for them more. I felt like I would die if I went back there, I was so exhausted. Seeing nothing else to do, my Dad went back to hiking, and I sat down under a palm tree--utterly dejected. I'm pretty sure I was praying, too. It seemed like forever as I sat there. The tree was surely a blessing, but nothing can truly fulfill and satisfy a thirst--other than WATER!
Sometime later, I don't remember how long after, my Dad returned--alone. We decided to hike up farther to a restaurant to borrow a phone to try calling my Mom. More hot walking!
We walked in the building--I nearly shivered! It was extremely refreshing though, and praise the Lord! We learned from the phone call that our family was IN the bus!
I remember after the first relieving greetings were over, I asked "Mom, do you have any water? I am SOOOO thirsty!" And yes, at last, my longing was satisfied.
In this life experience of mine, I find a really important illustration that I would like to share with you. Have you ever felt spiritually thirsty? A longing perhaps that you just don't know how to satisfy? It might show itself as a craving for friends, for likes on social media, or just as the feeling of inactivity, only wanting to peruse Youtube shorts. I know I have. And yet, when I think about it, being spiritually thirsty and just sitting there reading nonsense or watching vanity, or even busying myself with good things, instead of quenching my thirst the proper way, is like me sitting there in the desert around the Dead Sea, hot, tired, thirsty, and just hanging on, when a stone's throw away, or so, there was the bus, with my family, A.C., and LOTS of WATER...! Sounds a bit sad and silly, right?
Well, what can we do about it? How can we quench our spiritual thirst? Guess what!!! Jesus gave us the simple answer!
"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.’" ~John 4:10 NIV
"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.’" ~John 4:13,14 NIV
Simple, isn't it? To never thirst again, we MUST GO TO JESUS. Then our thirst is quenched, and then what?
In the book of Matthew is recorded a very interesting injunction from the Lord Jesus, there we read:
"And whosoever shall give to drink unto one of these little ones a cup of cold water only in the name of a disciple, verily I say unto you, he shall in no wise lose his reward." ~Matthew 10:42
So...I'm thirsty, I go to Jesus and spend time with Him (by prayer, opening up my heart to Jesus, unburdening my soul to Him, and by reading His Word, His Promises back to me!!!), and I my thirst is fulfilled. Then, I'm supposed to share this spiritual quenching "water" with others? How does that work? Let's go back to Jesus' words again:
"Jesus stood and said in a loud voice, ‘Let anyone who is thirsty come to me and drink. Whoever believes in me, as Scripture has said, rivers of living water will flow from within them.’
By this He meant the Spirit, whom those who believed in Him were later to receive. Up to that time the Spirit had not been given, since Jesus had not yet been glorified." ~John 7:37-39 NIV
Let's add this to our formula; when we are filled by Christ, it isn't any meager amount, but when we see and experience His Love, Grace, Forgiveness, Cleansing, Compassion and active Loving Service for us, we can't hold it in, it's too much (in a GOOD sense!)! It begins to gush out! To overflow. We are gifted with the desire of extending this cup of cool refreshing pure water, the Goodness of the Lord, to other people who are thirsty! And what a joy to experience the Life in Jesus for ourselves, and when we see others being refreshed and restored by it as well! Praise the Lord! It is so amazing how God's blessings like water, just ripple and ripple and ripple! I want to be filled by the Water of Life, the Spirit of God, and I long to share this cup with others, young and old, that they may also experience True Abundant Life! (Look up John 10:10)
So, to sum up this into a conclusion:
What does it take for us to see the thirsty persons around us and to joyously extend a cup to them--an invitiation to Jesus?
Not that much. It only takes us to be thirsty first.
"1. Sudden, before my inward open vision,
Millions of faces crowded up to view,
Sad eyes that said, 'For us is no provision,
Give us your Saviour, too.
2. 'Give us,' they cry, 'your cup of consolation,
Never to our outstretched hands 'tis passed;
We long for the Desire of every nation,
And, O, we die so fast.'"
~Author Unknown