Day 43

Wednesday, April 16th

Jesus… cried out, “If anyone thirsts, let him come to me and drink. Rivers of living water will brim and spill out of the depths of anyone who believes in me this way, just as the Scripture says.”

(John 7:37-39 MSG)

“If anyone thirsts”...

Recognition of our frailty as human beings is foundational in our walk with Jesus. It’s not enough to know that Jesus saved me, I first have to admit I needed saving. 

When we don’t recognize that we thirst, we cut ourselves off from His “rivers of living water.” When we rely on our own strength, giftings, and natural abilities, when we continue to drop the bucket into our own shallow wells to meet the needs of the people around us, we end up burned out, disillusioned and bitter.

Jesus never meant for us to do this life alone. When Jesus tells us to “love one another”, he didn’t mean we had to do it alone. He never meant for us to do anything this life requires of us on our own.

Today’s verse starts with Jesus “crying out”. Other translations say he “shouted”, or he “cried in a loud voice”. This was something he really wanted the crowds to hear, and it’s something he really wants us to hear, too. 

Can you hear it?

That the work He put you on earth to do, the people he placed in your life for you to love, you were never meant to do any of that on your own.

I hope you don’t take as many years to learn that as I did. 

I ran my own well dry. 

I was trying to fulfill my God-given destiny on this earth, trying to love the people God gave me to love by looking inside myself for the strength to do it. 

I was living from the wrong source. I had access to “rivers of living water” and instead I was drawing from my own paltry well.

It wasn’t until I gave up trying that God’s still, small voice broke through, saying, “I am the vine; you are the branches. Those who remain in me, and I in them, will produce much fruit…apart from me you can do nothing. (John 15:4-5 NLT)

Therein lies the secret to living freely and lightly.

Love had always been at my disposal. Not the human, limited, conditional kind of love that lived in my own heart, but God’s limitless, unfathomable love.

All we have to do is stay connected to vine by coming to Him, again and again.

Are you ready to give up doing it on your own?

Do you hear Jesus “crying out”, inviting you to come to Him? Let’s read those words again: “If anyone thirsts, let him come to me and drink. Rivers of living water will brim and spill out of the depths of anyone who believes in me this way.”