Which Water Will You Drink?

          Several years ago, we had a serious decline in our rainfall producing drought conditions here in Florida.  Our lakes are lower than normal, and water restrictions were in place for a number of years.  Water is certainly a valuable commodity which we cannot live without.  However, some water is definitely better tasting than other water.
     When I was growing up, I used to visit my Great Aunt Mickey and Great Uncle Paul Eitzman at their farm near Holgate, Ohio.  We would spend a day visiting and having fun on their farm.  Unfortunately, they had terrible water!  Now they didn't think it was bad but like many farm families, they had sulphur water.  It smelled like rotten eggs!  They even drank it, and when I think about that, it turns my stomach.  I would often hold my nose if I needed water so I could quickly get it down.  They had another faucet in their home where they had treated water which was better, but I much preferred the water we had at home.

Pure clean Florida Spring water

     God's people didn't drink the best water either during the time of Jeremiah the Prophet.  In Jeremiah 2:9-13, we read:  "Therefore I will yet bring charges against you,' says the Lord,' and against your children's children I will bring charges.  For pass beyond the coasts of Cyprus and see; Send to Kedar and consider diligently, and see if there has been such a thing.  Has a nation changed its gods, which are not gods?  But My people have changed their Glory for what does not profit.  Be astonished, O heavens, at this, and be horribly afraid; Be very desolate,' says the Lord.  'For My people have committed two evils.  They have forsaken Me, the fountain of living waters, and hewn themselves cisterns - broken cisterns that can hold no water.'"
     What God spoke through Jeremiah was true.  The children of Israel did not desire God the Father who had delivered them.  Instead, they preferred other gods.  They gave up their joy, their glory, their true lives for things that meant nothing in the end.  They exchanged the all powerful ever living Fountain of Life for sulphur water!  That is how I see this passage.
     Our Lord Jesus Christ is the Living Water and He asks us to drink deeply of him.  When we do, it is life and health to our bones.  When we drink of this world, we are drinking sulphur water and it stinks.  The result is that we stink too.
     How often are we like those people in Jeremiah's day?  Do we get tied up with the temptations, desires, and pursuits of this life to the exclusion of God?  I think we all do at one time or another.  We can tell ourselves all day long that sulphur water smells and tastes good, but it doesn't compare to clear, pure spring water.  My aunt and uncle got used to sulphur water so they didn't think much about it.  Likewise, we can get so used to our worldly viewpoints on power, money, and self that we cannot see where we have departed the path that God has laid out for us.  That's where the Holy Spirit comes in.  He is able to tell us that our lifestyle stinks just the way sulphur water does.  He is able to refresh us and open our eyes to the Living Water.
     Beginning today, let us ask God to open our eyes and give us a thirst for His Living Water that we may live to His glory and purpose.  As we seek Him, the Holy Spirit will reveal areas of our life where we have been willing to settle for sulphur water.  I would rather bathe in His Living Water of the Word than to be drenched in the smell of this world.  Selah!