Thursday, September 5, 2013 -- River Of Life
Thursday September 5, 2013

I mentioned yesterday that I enjoyed swimming in the ocean during the hot summer days here in Vancouver. When I was young we lived in the countryside. Not far from our home was a lovely little stream where we often played on hot sunny days. We had a lot of fun there. We got into that cool water when we were hot. We found little fish there. We played with the sand. If we were thirsty I’m sure we scooped up a little water with our hands and had a drink. It was a lovely little stream.
God has a refreshing river for us today as well. God invites us to come to that river and be refreshed. God knows the days are hot and we are tired. God wants us to be renewed so we can enjoy today.

Sometimes the circumstances of our lives make us hot and tired. We work hard. We bump into problems. We can’t seem to fix things on our own, but we keep on trying. It reminds me of the water tank we had in the basement of our house in the country. It would store rain water but after a while all sorts of things would be floating in that water. We could use it for baths but not for drinking. God uses a picture of this kind of water tank to show us how much better our lives are when we let Him help us – refreshing stream or a tank of dirty water.

God says: “For my people have done two evil things: They have abandoned me—the fountain of living water. And they have dug for themselves cracked cisterns that can hold no water at all! (Jeremiah 2:13 NLT)
When we try to fix our own lives we’re like that. Not only is the water not very good, but the water tank was cracked so lots of good water got lost. God wants us to experience the satisfying solutions that only He can give us. Jesus wants us to invite Him into our lives today – so He can give us life. He promises that we will have refreshing life when we come to Him in every situation.

Jesus stood and shouted to the crowds, “Anyone who is thirsty may come to me! Anyone who believes in me may come and drink! For the Scriptures declare, ‘Rivers of living water will flow from his heart.” (John 7:37-38 NLT)
Let’s enjoy God’s river of delights around us and the river of living water inside us that Jesus promises.
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