Living Water

The Accenture Match Play Championship is being played on a golf course outside of Tucson, Arizona. Like all the golf courses on the PGA Tour, it boasts luxurious green grass. But wait a minute, this is the middle of the desert! Overhead camera shots from the blimp show that when you step off the greens and fairways you're in rocky, sandy, desolate territory that should never be able to support the growth of thick, green grass. How do they do it? Irrigation, of course. Every day, sprinkler systems provide life-giving water to the golf couse. Without it, the grass would quickly wither and die.

That started me thinking. Christians are a lot like that golf course. We live in a world that cannot support spiritual life. Yet here we are: thriving and growing and enjoying the rich spiritual blessings from God's heavenly storehouse. How can that be? Only through the provision of Jesus can we ever hope to have real life in this world. John said of Jesus, "In Him was life, and the life was the light of men" (John 1:4). When Jesus visited the Samaritan woman by Jacob's well, He said, "If you knew the gift of God, and who it is who says to you, ‘Give Me a drink,’ you would have asked Him, and He would have given you living water" (John 4:10). Paul said that the Rock in the wilderness that supplied water for the Israelites was Christ (1 Corinthians 10:4).

We need to understand how important it is to stay in touch with our Lord. If Jesus is the one who provides living water, then if we disconnect from Him we disconnect from the water of life. It would not take long for us to become like that desert: spiritually dry and desolate. Sow how do we get and keep this supply of living water?

First, we have to get access to the water, to begin with. Baptism puts us into Christ (Romans 6:3-4)--that's when our relationship with Him begins. Then we have to maintain an ongoing relationship with Him. We have to keep on feeding on His Word (1 Peter 2:2). We have to continue in prayer (1 Thessalonians 5:17). We have to stay in touch with His people (Romans 12:4-5). We have to stay faithful to His cause (Revelation 2:10).

If we put Jesus first and live for Him in all things we will enjoy the blessings of that living water. In a dead and desolate world we will thrive and flourish as we enjoy the spiritual blessings only Jesus can offer.