What Are You Drinking?
by Lindsey Hanekom
I was once taking our dog for a walk when, towards the end, he took a drink from the dirtiest, murkiest puddle around. I thought to myself, “Oh, for goodness sake, you couldn’t wait the five minutes to get home where I would pour you a fresh bowl of clean water to drink,” and then wondered if I was going to soon have some dog sick to clear up!
This situation reminded me of this scripture and all the biblical concepts of ‘streams of living water’ and ‘a fountain of life’. It made me wonder if I was a little like our dog ... settling for the expediency of a quick, not quite right, drink of something, and then wonder why I find I’m struggling with things a little later on.
It’s so easy in the busyness of life to settle for a quick and familiar portion of encouraging words of Scripture to make us feel good. Or to ignore the Scriptures and assume that some worship music or a quick prayer will do the trick instead. Yet these are temporary solutions that have no long-lasting effects, because our goal is to feel better. God’s goal is to deepen our love and understanding of Him. The difference is vitally important!
The streams of water talked about in Psalm 42 are what the psalmist longs for. His heart cry is a deep, deep, thirst for answers; a heart cry of pain and anguish. The answers are not to be found in the stagnant waters of head knowledge and past understanding. The answers are in the torrents (referred to later in the psalm as waterfalls, and breaking waves of the sea) of love and hope in God, regardless of the situation we find ourselves in.
If we allow ourselves to take the time to delve deeper into the deep, life source of the Bible, and allow the continuous flow of the Holy Spirit to speak to us through it, I’m sure we’d find the answers to the deep cries of our hearts. It would open up the heart of God to us in new and fresh ways.
Lindsey Hanekom Lindsey has worked at all of our UK centres over the years and has settled at Ellel Scotland with her husband, Johann and their two young children, Kyle and Zoe. As part of the Leadership Team at Ellel Scotland, Lindsey has a heart for the deeply broken as she oversees the prayer ministry and is an established and passionate teacher with Ellel. In her spare time, Lindsey enjoys the natural world, particularly the ocean, and is trained as a specialist medic to assist stranded and injured marine mammals.
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