RIVERS OF
LIVING WATER.
BY CARRIE F. JUDD
He cutteth out rivers among the
rocks. Job xxviii:10
I know that there are
many dear ones thirsting today for more of the “water of life,” and crying in
the words of the Psalmist, “As the hart panteth after the water brooks, so
panteth my soul after Thee, O God.”
Precious, indeed, is the
answer which our pitiful Father vouchsafes to His weary children, “I will pour
water upon him that is thirsty, and floods upon the dry ground: I will pour My
Spirit upon thy seed, and My blessing upon thine offspring.” (Isa. xliv:3.)
Such an outpouring of
God’s Spirit as is here promised is essential to every believer before he can
work with power in the service of the Lord: for we cannot give what we do not
possess, and we cannot water others unless we, ourselves, are drawing from the
Living Fountain. Blessed be God, He “giveth not the Spirit by measure” unto
those who will open their hearts to receive Him. It is not His will that we
should be limited to occasional dews of His grace, but His unbound mercy
reveals itself in the promise of “floods”
of blessing “upon the dry ground.”
And why then are we not
filled? Why are we not so full of the blessed Spirit of God that His fullness
can flow through us, and out of us, refreshing our own souls and all those with
whom we come in contact? Alas! We will not take the receptive attitude of
faith. Jesus bids us “ask and receive” that our “joy may be full.” We obey His
command in asking, but we do not
throw open our souls that we may receive.
God’s word to us is, “Open thy mouth wide, and I will fill it” (Psa. lxxxi:10),
yet we do not pause in our cries of hunger to accept what is so freely offered.
The mistake that very
many of us make is in asking God to give us holiness of heart as though it were
something apart from Himself. We do not realize that Jesus has already been
given to us by the Father, and that our possession of His attributes consists
only in our possessing Him: “A Man shall be… as rivers of water in a dry
place.”-(Isa. xxxii:2.)
This “Man,” Christ
Jesus, when “He bore our sins in His own body on the tree” knew what it was to
suffer thirst; though He was, and is, the “Living fountain.” He thirsted for
our sakes that we might be made to “drink of the river of His pleasures.” We
hear Him saying that those words of patient grief, “They gave Me also gall for
my meat; and in My thirst they gave Me vinegar to drink” (Psa. lxix:21), and
then in vivid contrast with man’s mocking cruelty we hear the Saviour’s message
of matchless grace: “When the poor and needy seek water and there is none, and
their tongue faileth for thirst, I the Lord will not hear them, I the God of
Israel will not forsake them. I will open rivers in high places, and fountains
in the midst of the valleys; I will make the wilderness a pool of water and the
dry land springs of water.”-(Isa. xli: 17,18.)
The “cold flowing
waters” (Jer. xviii:14) never cease in their beneficent action. They are
available for us at all times if we will only receive them, but we must drink
by faith, Jesus has said, “If any man thirst let him come unto Me and drink,”
and the utterance of faith would be, “Lord Jesus, I come, and according to Thy word I do drink now.” And depending on that unfailing word we may rest in the
sure conviction that marvelous refreshing will be shed abroad in our souls by
that living draught. “The glorious Lord will be unto us a place of broad rivers
and streams.”-(Isa. xxxiii:21.) Not only shall our own souls be abundantly
satisfied, but “rivers of living water’ shall flow from us to the reviving of
other thirsty souls, and they, and we, shall show forth the praise of the Lord;
for “unto the place from whence the rivers come, thither they return
again.”-(Eccl. i:7.)
In Isa. xlviii:21, we
read, “He caused the waters to flow out of the rock for them: He clave the rock
also, and the waters gushed out.” Dear friends, the Rock has already been cleft
for us, and the spiritual drink of love and peace is even now gushing out to satisfy our every need.
Shall we in our impatience and unbelief “smite this Rock” which is so ready to
satisfy our longing that a single word of appeal shall enable us to partake
of its “living waters”? Shall we
continue to carry with thirst when by an act of simple faith we may drink of
its abundant outflow? Let us beware lest in our disobedience and lack of trust
we fall short of the end of our service, and hear the rebuking words, “Because
ye believed Me not, to sanctify Me in the eyes of the children of Israel,
therefore ye shall not bring this congregation into the land which I have given
them.-(Num. xx:12)
If we have not wherewith
to water the fainting souls around us, shall we not be held accountable by our
Master for the unfruitfulness of our service? We read that at the last day the
Judge of all the earth shall say unto the unprofitable servants, “I was thirsty
and ye gave me no drink…in as much as ye did it not unto one of the last of
these, ye did it not unto Me.”-(St. Matt. xxv:42,45.) Solemn words that we
should ponder well! For if we fail to drink deeply of Christ’s spiritual drink
we shall be without excuse, in as much as the gracious invitation is even now
sounding in our ears, “Let him that is athirst come. And whosoever will, let
him take the water of life freely.”-(Rev. xxii:17.)
Are we “athirst”? Then
we are invited to drink of this living water, and let us partake so freely that
those who have not yet known a “thirst after righteousness” may realize by our
fullness their own lack, and be constrained to “ask and receive.”
“Ho ever one that
thirsteth come ye to the waters.” –(Isa. lv:1.)
“Whosoever drinketh of
the water that I shall give him shall never thirst but the water that I shall
give him shall never thirst; but the water that I shall give him shall be in
him a well of water springing up into everlasting life.” –(St. John iv:14.)
