Can we really get too wet?
The living water… life as we know it is supported by water. Our bodies… what we put in them for nourishment… the air that we breathe… and our surroundings are all based on the presence of water. It’s a very basic building block. We can’t live without it. Our existence and that of most everything else here in this world are both dependent on it.
God is called the fountain of life and the spring of living water…
Jesus, speaking to the woman at the well, says, “If you knew the gift of god and who it is that asks you for a drink, you would have asked him and he would have give you living water.” John 4:10
He invites us to come to Him to quench our thirst…
“Come, all you who are thirsty, come to the waters…” Isaiah 55:1
I find myself wanting to not only quench my thirst, I want to drench myself in this sparkling clean wellspring… yearning for the water to flow from the inside out…
“If a spring has not been opened in a soul, a spring of living water from God’s own Son, no waters can flow and there is no life in you.” G.V. Wigram
Then I wonder sometimes…
Do you think we can ever be so drippy wet that our testimony turns people away from God, instead of toward Him?
I mean, who hasn’t hesitated to talk to the church people who come knocking on the door unexpectedly, right? Did they have an impact? Was that a good one, or a bad one? I’m not questioning their intentions… they were following our calling to spread the Gospel. I want to do that… but with an impression that is magnetic. One that has a favorable result.
Wondering… can we be too wet?
I think that which separates the two… wet vs. too wet… is not so much when I think of fulfilling my own thirst but how I have influence… my witness to others in my community… and what lies within my heart… my motivation… is humility.
This thirst, or desire, seems to be both internal (through the notion of where I am on my own spiritual journey) and external (how that connection with God has an impact on others).
So maybe being thirsty is internal… like putting oil in the lamp…Â and being wet is external… how the lamp shines its light?
And this wetness just continually flows…
“Christ is not a reservoir but a spring. His life is continual, active and ever passing on with an outflow as necessary as its inflow. If we do not perpetually draw the fresh supply from the living Fountain, we shall either grow stagnant or empty, It is, therefore, not so much a perpetual fullness as a perpetual filling.” A.B. Simpson
Staying thirsty… and wet… it’s revealing the condition of our heart…
Q: Do you think we can be “too wet” in the way our testimony speaks to others?
“Image courtesy of num_skyman / FreeDigitalPhotos.net”
Interesting. I have known people who are pushy about their faith. The reaction is that people are turned off. I think a stronger testimony than spouting scripture or threatening hellfire is “let me tell you what knowing Jesus has done for me.” Hopefully our drippy-ness seeps through in all areas of our live naturally without us having to force it…at least that’s the goal, right?
Yea, that “what knowing Jesus has done for me” testimony is powerful stuff! I like that approach Carol… and the thought of “drippy-ness”… lol… that fits the shower picture, a series of soothing… cascading… living… water… falls!