June 2022 - LPNI

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June 2022

Water that Satisfies

The area where we live is known for particularly good drinking water. We’re part of the drift-less region with many hills and deep aquifers that do not seem to be so susceptible to field run-off and contamination. I’ve been amazed to learn that most places have water that can be drawn from the ground that has been filtered by layers of rock and sand, so the end result is satisfying, life-giving water.

The opposite of this is unfiltered, stagnant, overly chemically treated water, or the absence of water altogether. Life cannot survive in this state. The Dead Sea, as an example, can support no life. The psalmist says “My soul thirsts … for the living God” (Psalm 42:2). Augustine wrote, “Our hearts are restless until they find their rest in thee.” To paraphrase this, we can say: “Our souls are thirsty until our thirst is quenched by thee.”

Jesus, the Water of Life, is the only one who can satisfy our thirsty soul. The effects of sin pervade the world. Even in the church, people and circumstances can disappoint us. Like stagnant water, sin seeps into our lives and relationships. The only one in the church who will not — cannot — disappoint us is Jesus. He is the spiritual source of fresh, clean, pure, oxygenated, life-giving, soul-satisfying, thirst-quenching water.

Like the woman at the well near Cana (John 4) we too have come to faith even through our confusion and misunderstanding. We too have received the gift of the water of life from Jesus the Messiah. He is just what we have needed. Water never tasted as good as this Living Water!

As Jesus said: “Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they will be filled” (Matthew 5:6). Thank God that Jesus provides us with water that fills and satisfies our thirsty souls.

Rev. Fred Zimmermann Cross Plains, WI, USA