Dehydration

I woke up really thirsty this morning. When that happens, I’m fearful of dehydration, which is a dangerous thing. It occurs when your body is losing more fluids than it is taking in. It can affect your skin, blood pressure, and heart rate. In severe cases, it can cause weakness and confusion, kidney damage, or brain damage. No wonder my doctors and nurses and adult children are always on my case about drinking lots of water.

Just like our bodies need water, so do our spirits. And Jesus is the source of that water so desperately needed. When Christ confronted the Samaritan woman at the well, He made the comparison. “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,” He said (John 4:13-14, NIV).

Water is not only necessary for quenching thirst, but for cleansing. “Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her  to make her holy, cleansing her by the washing with water through the word” (Ephesians 5:26, NIV). How often do you take a shower or a bath? How often do you wash your hands? How often do you let the Word of God flow over your soul to refresh and cleanse it?

There’s a beautiful invitation in Revelation 22:17. “The Spirit and the bride say, ‘Come!’ Let everyone who hears this also say, ‘Come!’ Let the thirsty man come, and let everyone who wishes take the water of life as a gift”(JBP). So we come, and we invite others to come. We come to the source of life, cleansing, and renewal. And the dehydration process is reversed. The awful consequences are avoided. And we are revived.

Are you thirsty today? Are you headed to the right cure? There are other options often sought to quench thirst. But water is the best one. The healthy one. Are you letting the water of the Word flow in and through you to others? Or are you letting spiritual dehydration take its toll?