SWORD OF THE SPIRIT                                                                                               1051

“Oasis”

O God, you are my God; earnestly I seek you; my soul thirsts for you; my flesh faints for you, as in a dry and weary land where there is no water. (Psalm 63:1)

Perhaps you can recall a scene you have viewed from television and the movies where people are lost in a desert wasteland. Their water supply has run out and the days pass as they travel on foot seeking a way out. They walk at first, and then wearily trudge along as their chapped and split lips and skin show signs of severe dehydration. Later, we see them crawling along the desert sand desperately seeking water.  Then they see it, an oasis with a pool of water. They muster every last ounce of strength and tumble headlong into the pool. They drink deeply and splash about joyously, rejoicing in the renewal of life for their bodies that the water brings.

As a deer pants for flowing streams, so pants my soul for you, O God.  My soul thirsts for God, for the living God. When shall I come and appear before God? (Psalm 42:1-2)

God’s Word uses the metaphor for thirst and water often. Our thirst drive is one of our strongest physical drives so it is easier for us to relate to God’s message about how desperate our spiritual need is for communion with Him.

Some desert oases are brackish or poisonous and to drink from them would leave us thirsty and most likely bring illness and death. The world around us offers us many false spiritual oases from which we try to satisfy our innate desire for communion with God to no avail. There is no substitute that can fill the ‘God-sized’ hole in our soul. These false oases take the form of religious cults, hedonism, and materialism. All who deny God and seek false oases will remain discontent, unsatisfied and unfulfilled.

…”Sir,” the (Samaritan) woman said, “you have nothing to draw with and the well is deep. Where can you get this living water?… Jesus answered, “Everyone who drinks this water will be thirsty again, but whoever drinks the water I give him will never thirst. Indeed, the water I give him will become in him a spring of water welling up to eternal life.” (John 4:7-14)

There is only one source of living water and that is Jesus Christ. Are you empty?

Do you feel a thirst in your spirit that is crying out to be satisfied?

Do you have an abundance of what this life has to offer yet remain discontented?

Jesus said: …To him who is thirsty I will give to drink without cost from the spring of the water of life… (Revelation 21:6-8)

We live in a dry, parched society that denies God and His plan for salvation for us through His Son, Jesus. We are presented with many false oases while governments seek to block access to the one true oasis for Living Water, Jesus Christ. Many of our churches have followed suit and poisoned their oases with compromised teaching and interpretation of the Word of God in order to better fit into current societal norms.

Accept no substitute. Come to Jesus and dive headlong with total abandon into the oasis of His presence and experience the joy and inner peace of renewal and revival of your soul.