Every Day with Jesus Daily Bible – December 17
December 17
Joel 3:1-Amos 2:16
Psalm 143:1-6
Proverbs 30:21-23
Revelation 7:1-17
Fresh Water
The Lamb … will guide them to springs of living waters, and God will wipe away every tear from their eyes.—Revelation 7:17
The idea for the theme of “staying spiritually fresh” arose out of a letter I received some time ago which said: “Over the past year or so, my Christian life has become stale—insufferably so. I have lost the freshness and spontaneity I once knew. Can you say something that will help bring back the sparkle into my Christian experience? What is the remedy?”
But can we expect always to live in a state of spiritual alertness and freshness? Isn’t that being unrealistically optimistic? Well, what does Scripture say? It shows us that the people of God are meant to be beautiful gardens in the midst of a dry desert. The prophet Isaiah puts it like this: “You will be like a watered garden and like a spring whose waters never run dry” (Isa 58:11).
In Ezekiel 47:8, Ezekiel says that the river flows into the sea and “the sea becomes fresh.” How thrilling! The river of God flowing into our dead seas turns them fresh. Whatever reasons there are for our lives becoming spiritually stale, it is quite clear from Scripture that they need not be so. God offers to exchange His strength daily for our weakness, His freshness for our staleness.
Prayer
My Father and my God, I come at the beginning of these meditations to ask that You will make my life like a watered garden. Let Your fresh rivers run into my dead seas so that my whole being is revived—day after day after day. Amen.
Further Study
Jn 4:1-29; 7:37-38; Rv 7:17
What is the quality of the water that Christ gives?
How did Jesus describe it to the woman?
Every Day with Jesus Daily Bible – December 17
D5 Creation