The Real "Real" Thing - Lynda Schultz

The recent news that it really isn’t necessary to good health to drink eight to ten glasses of water every day brought joy to my heart. It’s tough to swallow that much water (and not spend your life in the bathroom). Even better: Coffee was off the hit list of things that didn’t qualify as liquid. As long as it’s wet it makes the list of acceptable fluids. The rule now, apparently, is to drink when you’re thirsty and to replace liquids that you lose through whatever might cause dehydration. Ah, blessed relief!

Has the red flag gone up in your mind yet?

No matter what the new “evidence” may declare, there is still no substitute for pure and unadulterated water–and plenty of it.

The same is true in the spiritual realm. The popular trend has been to dig other “cisterns” in an effort to satisfy our spiritual thirst. We take courses, attend seminars and read books by the most popular authors. We seek the spiritual sages of our modern world and listen intently to their stings of stories lightly brushed with a verse or two of Scripture. Odd that the more we “fill up” the thirstier we seem to be. Perhaps the psalmist felt the same way when he wrote:

“As the deer pants for streams of water, so my soul pants for you, O God. My soul thirsts for God, for the living God. Where can I go and meet with God?” (Psalm 42:1, 2, NIV).

As good as all the substitutes might be, there is nothing that can compare with the pure and unadulterated spiritual water that comes from seeking, finding, and communing with God through His Word and in prayer.

God doesn’t hide Himself from those who look for Him. The psalmist would not have been thirsty for long. Like the Samaritan woman in John 4, he would have soon discovered: “…whoever drinks the water I give him will never thirst. Indeed the water I give him will become to him a spring of water welling up to eternal life” (4:14, NIV).

Thirst-quenching, life-changing, and no plastic bottles left behind.