Bucket or Hose?
I filled up a bucket and dumped it on the plants; and whoosh, the water was sucked into the parched earth so quickly it was as if I'd added no moisture as all.
Well clearly that wasn't going to work!
So I pulled out the hose, untangled the kinks, hooked it up to the tap and gave the flowers the drink they really needed. While I was at it I watered the whole garden thoroughly as there wasn't any effort involved as the hose was already in place.
I picked up a women's magazine and found an inspirational sidebar which read
"Your dreams are within reach"
"You're someone worth believing in"
"You can succeed. You should succeed. You will succeed"
So refreshing aren't they?
Like a bucket of water poured into parched ground.
How much sustenance is there in a sentimental saying?
Some, but how much more value are words of hope and truth?
John 7:38 gives us the means to be as channel, a hose if you would, of life to those around us. "He who believes in Me, as the Scripture has said, out of his heart will flow rivers of living water."
The Greek word for living here is zao meaning "living water, having vital power in itself and exerting the same upon the soul."
From where does this living water flow? What is the tap we must be connected to in order to provide such life giving water?
The Lord is the fountain of living water (Jeremiah 17:12)
To have access to such a resource I must be connected to God.
And sometimes that seems to be a hassle. To confess sin and renounce myself, to find time and desire to spend in God's Word and in prayer, to give Him control and dominion over every thing in my life; these are the kinks I must untangle for His life giving words to flow through me to help others.
But when they do, the effort is not of myself for God himself provides the truth and hope to the ones I minister too. If I'm not connected to Him I'm merely running back and forth, filling from my own ideas, mere buckets of water.
So today do we share a sweet saying like "You make a difference in this world" or words of life that communicate that the Almighty God, creator of the universe, sent His Son to die in your place so that you could be in a relationship with Him? Words like...
He saw you cast into a river of life you didn't request. He saw you betrayed by those you love. He saw you with a body that gets sick and a heart that grows weak. He saw you in your own garden of gnarled trees and sleeping friends. He saw you staring into the pit of your own failures and the mouth of your own grave. He saw you in your own garden of Gethsemane and he didn't want you to be alone ... He would rather go to hell for you than to heaven without you."
— Max Lucado
Which will it be? Buckets of our understanding and advice or letting God's living water flow through us because of our connectedness with Him?
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