Living Water

Recently I went away on holidays for ten days and I was concerned about all my seedlings in the greenhouse. Being away for ten days meant they needed water. Here in the UK April weather can be very unpredictable and young seedlings need protection and warmth in a greenhouse to grow.

I didn’t want to bother our neighbours to ask them to water the plants. I looked up the weather forecast and saw that it was going to be very warm with no risk of frost and that rain was forecast exactly half way through the time I was away. I then put my trust in the weather and placed all my plants outside, gave them a really good watering before we went away for our holiday.

Whilst on holiday I looked at the weather to see how much rain we were going to get, so the little seedlings and other plants would get a good drink before we returned. To my surprise, the weather had changed and the rain missed our area. I was hoping that more rain would come, but sadly none arrived.

When I got home after midnight on our tenth day away, I discovered that most of the plants were not looking good at all. They were almost dead and all flopping over. I began to water them to see if they would recover. The plant that suffered the most was my blueberry plant. It had lost all its leaves and did not look good at all.

It was here I felt God speak into my spirit, saying, “Robert, these plants need water to survive and without it they will die. It is the same with My people. Without living water people will also look the same as these plants.”

This is exactly what Jesus was saying to the women at the well. She had deep needs in her life and was struggling with everyday life. Jesus gently drew the truth out of her and said she needed to have something more than just physical water in her life, and what she really needed was living water. This living water can only come through Jesus Christ.

Just as my plants and seedlings suffered from the lack of regular watering, nurture and care, we too can suffer if we don’t keep up an ongoing relationship with Jesus where He can constantly water our lives with His word, truth and fellowship.

Often, we go without watering our souls with the love and care of Jesus and as a result we suffer, just as my plants did. I wonder where you are at with watering your life with the life-giving water that only Jesus can give.

With ongoing watering, love and care, all my plants (including the blueberry bush) have all recovered and are now growing strong and are healthy.

My prayer for all of us today is for us all, to regularly allow God to water our lives so we can grow strong and healthy.