Come to the Waters

Thirsty for God The Spirit and the bride say, “Come!” . . . To the thirsty I will give water without cost from the spring of the water of life . . . Yes, let the one who is thirsty come and take the free gift of the water of life. (Rev. 21:6, 22:17) Welcome to this special presentation of prayer, reflections and music on the theme of receiving the waters of life that the Lord Jesus is offering us, and which we hear Isaiah, Israel’s great prophet to the nations, announcing. “Ho everyone who is thirsty, come to the waters!” We don’t say ‘Ho’ anymore, but it’s a really strong word in Hebrew: ‘Hoy’ rather like Jesus saying ‘Verily, verily.’ Most modern versions simply sayI while the ultra-modern ones use some such expression as ‘Hey! Or ‘You there!’ And what a warm and welcoming word ‘come’ is! And what it is we are being invited to come to do? To buy, and drink! In places where water is scare, we wouldn’t be in the least surprised to hear vendors crying out, ‘Drinking Water: come and get it!” But then we would expect to hear a hefty price tag attached: ‘Thirty shekels a hin!’ But not here. Here, we are invited to come without price – to receive and to drink. We’re talking about the river of life which Jesus promised would flow within the hearts of believers (John 7:37). All our springs are meant to be in Him, (Ps. 87:7) and we’re praying today that You will release more of the flow of Your Spirit directly into any areas of our heart where the water level has become cloudy, silted, damned up, or receded – just as water companies open the sluice gates and release additional reserves of water when it is required. Thank You, Jesus, that there is a river whose streams make glad the city of God, that holy place where the Most High dwells. (Ps. 46:4) I love the Hebrew word that is used here for ‘come:’ haw-lak or lə·ḵū. Forgive the pronunciation, but the lovely thing about it is that, depending on the context, it embraces both an invitation to come and a directive to go. In other words, it covers all eventualities. We are meant to come to the Lord to drink so that we can go out in the power of the Spirit. It is the direction of travel in our life that is the most important thing of all. And there are times when our thirst is quenched and we can be perfectly at peace and at rest in You – but Jesus, we’re sorry that so often, we come to You for a brief drink and then, as if satisfied that we have done our duty and had our weekly dose, before just carrying on again with our own concerns. Jesus, help us to recognise those times when You want us to press in and to push through, taking full advantage of Your invitation to come to the waters, looking to see where the Spirit would guide and lead us next. Did You not tell us that it is the Spirit alone who gives life, and that the flesh counts for nothing? (John 6:63 NIV) We’re eager to enter into the fullness of that life, into Your vitality that revives our dull and self-satisfied souls.