CONCERT OF PRAYER

Pray Week 797

“Thirsty”

John 7:37-39 (ESV) …Jesus stood up and cried out, “If anyone thirsts, let him come to me and drink. Whoever believes in me, as the Scripture has said, ‘Out of his heart will flow rivers of living water.’ ” Now this he said about the Spirit, whom those who believed in him were to receive…

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Imagine being thirsty on a hot, humid day and ordering a cold beverage only to have it brought to your table in a filthy, dirty glass.  You probably would not drink from it no matter how thirsty you were.

As Christians, we are vessels for God’s Holy Spirit, His ‘Living Water’.  Reflect for a moment whether others, believers and non-believers alike, would drink from your vessel.

Sure, on the outside you look holy and Christian-like.  You proudly wear sacramental emblems as well as T-shirts, bracelets and other jewelry with Christian sayings.  You adorn your car with license plate holders, bumper stickers and other Christian symbols.  Does all of this merely identify you as a member of a religious club in much the same way as those with political, sports, & various social affiliations identify themselves?

… Hypocrites! You are so careful to clean the outside of the cup and the dish, but inside you are filthy—full of greed and self-indulgence! Blind Pharisees! First wash the inside of the cup, and then the outside will become clean, too. – Matt 23:25

What is the difference?  What would draw the thirsty for Jesus to come to you?  Many of us know people who are believers and non-believers.  Many of us know non-believers that act more Christ-like than many believers.  This is sad, but true.

Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you are like whitewashed tombs, which outwardly appear beautiful, but within are full of dead people’s bones and all uncleanness. So you also outwardly appear righteous to others, but within you are full of hypocrisy and lawlessness. -Matt 23:27

The power and the draw of the Church is the abiding presence of God’s Holy Spirit in the heart of believers in Jesus Christ.  We have to get beyond the idea that the Church is a building. The Church is you and I going about our daily lives in this world.  The woman at the well asked Jesus for Living Water.  Will people in your daily encounters recognize Christ in you and also ask for His Living Water?  Or will they be repulsed by the ‘vessel’ that you proclaim carries this Living Water?

Brothers and sisters in Christ, you are evangelists and missionaries each and every day of your lives.  Your actions and words under the vast variety of life circumstances and situations speak of the reality of the truth of the Gospel of Jesus Christ that is living in you.

May the Holy Spirit do a ‘deep cleansing’ of your vessel, inside and out.  May you yield to the Master’s hand as He scrapes away all the crud of the world that you have allowed to build up on your vessel, the temple of God’s Holy Spirit.  May the abiding presence of the Lord dwell in your heart and be an invitation to all who thirst for Jesus.

Create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a right spirit within me.  Cast me not away from your presence, and take not your Holy Spirit from me. – Psalm 51:10