The Dead Sea

John 4:13 “Jesus replied, People soon become thirsty again after drinking this water. But the water I give them takes away thirst altogether. It becomes a perpetual spring within them, giving them eternal life.”

A perpetual spring within us, living water, The Holy Spirit.  Jesus promises that the Holy Spirit will come and live within us. He will give us strength, rest, peace, joy and eventually eternal life.  What a promise!  Yet what happens if we take and take and never give from this perpetual spring within us?   We become like the Dead Sea. A land locked body of water into which rivers flow in, but none flow out.   It takes but never gives. The result is a lifeless sea, there are no fish or creatures living in or around it’s shores. It cannot take away thirst. To drink of it’s waters would result in death, not life.

It is the same with us, if we never give or look outside of ourselves, if we become self-centered, we cease to feel alive. Norman Vincent Peale wrote, “As a matter of fact, many are actually ill as a result of nothing but self-centeredness. When you lose yourself, letting your personality flow outward, your life takes on creative joy and even health.”  He goes on to tell the story of a wealthy man who thought he was sick, he had three nurses on round-the-clock duty. The man’s doctor asked Mr. Peale to give the man a dose of outgoing Christianity. Mr. Peale decided to give it a try and as he was sitting with the man he noticed an elderly woman struggling to move a chair.  Mr. Peale suggested to the “sick” man to help her with the chair. The man groaned and put up a protest but he did go and help the woman move the chair.  When he sat back down he said, “You know I actually got a kick out of that.”  Mr. Peale was in the same hotel about a year later and upon meeting the man again he found him to be full of life and energy. Mr. Peale asked him to explain it. He reminded Mr. Peale of when he helped the elderly woman. “That little service made me feel so good that I began looking for other opportunities to do something for people, just little things.  Then I found a few bigger services to render. One thing led to another until, strangely enough, I began to feel so much better that, finally, I came to the day when I saw myself. I got a clear view of how I was destroying my life by self-centeredness. By living in a more outgoing manner has made me a healthy man, he declared.”

Is your faith land locked? Does your life resemble a healthy body of water or the Dead Sea?  Jesus said in John 10:10  “The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy; I have come that they may have life, and have it to the full.”  Take these words of James and apply them to your life, “So you see, it isn’t enough just to have faith. Faith that doesn’t show itself by good deeds is no faith at all---it is dead and useless.”  James 2:17 Let us look outside of ourselves and give life giving water to those around us who are thirsty.  As a result you “will have life and have it to the full.”