and who is saying to you, ‘Give me a drink, ‘
you would have asked him
and he would have given you living water.”
Jesus, you want to give us living water today. Are we thirsty? Even regular water is easy to take for granted today. It's just sort of there. We are never really in danger of dying of thirst. We seldom have to go so long to find a drink that we are genuinely thirsty.
Yet in order to keep up this life of comfort we must return to the well each day. There is constant work necessary to sustain lives which are ultimately still subject to thirst. They are subject to the discomfort and even the pain of an imperfect world. Yet we must return to the well.
You lead us into the desert away from our comforts in order that we can understand this situation better.
Why did you ever make us leave Egypt?
Was it just to have us die here of thirst
with our children and our livestock?”
We are all anesthetized by the comforts of life and forget how precarious this life can be. We forget that we, as much as anyone, must return to the well each day. We forget that their are no guarantees.
You let us realize our thirst. This is not so that we dig better wells or so that we store more water in advance. Those things might be prudential but they are beside the point. You let us realize the thirst that is inherent in this life so that we might ask you for living water. Help us not to harden our hearts.
Our hearts are not meant to be parched by the desert. You promise that springs of living water will pour forth from those who believe in you (see John 7:38). You say this about the Holy Spirit you give to us.
And hope does not disappoint,
because the love of God has been poured out into our hearts
through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us.
Hope that disappoints is worldly hope. It is the well which leaves us thirsty. Your Spirit is hope which does not disappoint. He is the water which does not leave us thirsty. He wells up in us to eternal life.
So give us this water always, LORD. Help us to hear your call and to repent of the sinful ways we wrongly seek comfort and turn instead to the only place where true comfort is found. Pour your Spirit into our hearts so that we can give you the worship you desire.
But the hour is coming, and is now here,
when true worshipers will worship the Father in Spirit and truth;
and indeed the Father seeks such people to worship him.
Speak your words to us that we can really know who you are at the core of our beings. Knowing this we know a hope that is assured.
“We no longer believe because of your word;
for we have heard for ourselves,
and we know that this is truly the savior of the world.”
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