Welcome! So glad you are here! John 7:37-43 37 On the last and greatest day of the festival, Jesus stood and said in a loud voice, “Let anyone who is thirsty come to me and drink. 38 Whoever believes in me, as Scripture has said, rivers of living water will flow from within them.” 39 By this he meant the Spirit, whom those who believed in him were later to receive. Up to that time the Spirit had not been given, since Jesus had not yet been glorified.
40 On hearing his words, some of the people said, “Surely this man is the Prophet.”
41 Others said, “He is the Messiah.”
Still others asked, “How can the Messiah come from Galilee?42 Does not Scripture say that the Messiah will come from David’s descendants and from Bethlehem, the town where David lived?” 43 Thus the people were divided because of Jesus. 44 Some wanted to seize him, but no one laid a hand on him.
The call of Jesus in this account, "Let anyone one who is thirsty come to Me and drink!" resonates with the same cadence as His invitation in Matthew 11, "Come to Me all you who are weary and burdened and I will give you rest!"
Thirsty - weary... water - rest! These very fundamental metaphors about life are powerful tools for Jesus as He continues to reveal Himself and our need for Him. He says I need Him - He says I desperately need Him like water to a thirsty body I need Him for life!
His invitation is honest, passionate, intriguing and rejectable! He knows everyone needs Him desperately in their lives but He invites all who recognize that "thirst"! He wants us to "Come thirsty!" . If we don't come thirsty - we will just want to argue with Him or debate some trivial issue! No... He invites us to come thirsty! He invites me today to come in awareness of my need for water - water for my soul! Then I am open - surrendered - more fully recognizing His role in my life.
Another astounding thing in these verses is how this water He gives not only satisfies but is creative. As we drink Him in He will create "rivers of living water flowing from within!" We become, under the waterfall of His presence, not only recipients of lifegiving, thirst-quenching water but a river that flows "from within"! John's little parenthetical note helps out here! He says this is referring to the Holy Spirit whom they would receive.
There is something delightfully refreshing for me this day in this invitation to "Come thirsty!" and the promise "rivers of living water will flow from within!" This is an invitation to not only survive today or even better thrive today this is an invitation to come alive and be a life-giving impact - to overflow with life into the lives of others today!
That's refreshing, visionary, exciting and brimming with possibilities!
Thank you Jesus for inviting me into life - real life today! Come Holy Spirit - thirst quenching Spirit - fill me and overflow from me this day!
delton