....gift

We are often encouraged to share the wonders of God's love through the uncompromising truth of His Word. There are so many all around us who are in great need! We live in a lost and dying world full of people who desperately need to know God's plan of forgiveness and restoration. But as we share the truth and minister to others, let's also remember to make the time to personally receive ALL our Father has to offer.

When Jesus asked the Samaritan woman for a drink of water, she thought the request was quite odd since Jesus was clearly a Jew, and Jews did not associate with Samaritans; "How can you ask me for a drink?" John 4:9. Rather than explain His radical views on social interaction, Jesus took the opportunity to introduce the woman to the gift of God.

Jesus answered her, If you knew the gift of God and who it is that asks you for a drink, you would have asked Him and He would have given you living water. John 4:10

If we only knew! I often imagine a loving Father who has given the greatest gift the world has ever known. We approach and examine the gift. We ask questions and study the gift. We even shake the gift and then proudly display it on our shelf, but we never actually open the gift and receive what's inside. If we only knew! "Every good and perfect gift is from above" James 1:7. His gifts are perfect; and if we only knew, we would open and receive them with abounding joy!

His gift of living water is still available today. This gift refers to our Salvation by the spiritual transformation of our heart, but it also refers to His on-going gift of a victorious life of peace and contentment; "Everyone who drinks this water [from the well] will be thirsty again, but whoever drinks the water I give him will never thirst" John 4:13-14. His gift of Salvation is free through faith in Jesus Christ, and peace is assured through a humble submission to His will. But we continually rebel and pump from the wells of this world - we drink polluted lies and continually thirst for more.

Approximately 650 years earlier, God gave the same message to the people of Jerusalem: "My people have committed two sins: They have forsaken Me, the spring of living water, and have dug their own cisterns, broken cisterns that cannot hold water" Jeremiah 2:13. If we only knew! We sit beside a Spring overflowing with the best tasting water imaginable, but we turn away and pump sludge into our broken pots.

God has great plans for each of us - plans much bigger and brighter than anything we can accomplish through our own effort. Let's rediscover the gift of living water and put an end to our thirst! Let's return to the Spring and continue our journey in obedience. Let's drink freely and daily receive His perfect gift.

-steve troxel