Everyone who thirsts, come to the waters; and you who have no money, come, buy and eat. Yes, come, buy wine and milk without money and without price. Why do you spend money for what is not bread, and your wages for what does not satisfy? Listen carefully to Me, and eat what is good, and let your soul delight itself in abundance. (Isaiah 55:1-2)
The Spirit and the bride say, “Come!” And let him who hears say, “Come!” And let him who thirsts come. Whoever desires, let him take the water of life freely. (Revelation 22:17)
Now, why go to Egypt to drink water from the Nile? And why go to Assyria to drink water from the Euphrates? (Jeremiah 2:18)
Whoever drinks of this water will thirst again, but whoever drinks of the water that I shall give him will never thirst. But the water that I shall give him will become in him a fountain of water springing up into everlasting life. (John 4:13-14)
Have you ever experienced spiritual hunger, thirst, or poverty? I definitely have. After a full day of eating and drinking and spending, I’ve gone to bed and realized I’m still not satisfied.
In these moments, I’ve heard that voice of the Spirit saying “Katie, come to the waters, eat what is good, and let your soul delight itself in abundance.” I know from experience that His words are true! I have tasted and seen that the Lord is indeed good! I know that the water He provides is satisfying and the bread He gives is abundant.
Still – I have a plethora of excuses. To start, I have no money; there is nothing I can bring to the Lord in exchange for living water. These moments make me especially aware of my unworthiness and hypocrisy. Not only do I have nothing, I have also spent the last five minutes, five hours, five days, feasting on the bread and water of this world. How can I come? Surely I must wait until tomorrow when my sin is not so directly before me.
The enemy is very good at lying to us.
Jesus said the water is for him who thirsts. The wine and milk are for him who has no money.
Jesus knows that we aren’t thirsty for lack of water, but because we’ve been drinking water that can’t satisfy. He knows that our poverty is because we have wasted our wages on what does not satisfy. He knows our hunger is a result of gorging on the world’s candy.
To this person – the one who has wasted it all, who has drunk the water of this world and become thirsty again – Jesus says “come, buy eat. Yes, come, buy wine and milk without money and without price. Listen carefully to Me, and eat what is good, and let your soul delight itself in abundance.” So let him who thirsts come. Whoever desires, let him take the water of life freely.
The Lord has challenged me to consider where I am drinking from. Am I coming to Him and drinking deeply? Am I delighting myself in His goodness?
What about you? Will you come to Jesus? Will you stop waiting until you have something to bring, until your sin is not quite so great? If you are thirsty, you are urged by our loving Saviour to come to Him and drink deeply and be abundantly satisfied. The water is for you.
The water is Jesus Himself (Jeremiah 2:13, 17:13). How can we drink Jesus? It’s simple; as Jesus said – come to the water. Come to Jesus.
Here are a couple of songs I’ve been listening to as I meditate on Christ’s love inviting us to come to Him in our great poverty.
- Love Is Here (Unplugged), Tenth Avenue North
- “Come to the waters you who thirst and you’ll thirst no more. Come to the Father you who work and you’ll work no more. And all you who labor in vain and to the broken and shamed … Come to the treasure, you who search and you’ll search no more. Come to the lover you who want and you’ll want no more.”
- Come Ye Sinners, The Worship Initiative
- “Come ye thirsty, come and welcome God’s free bounty glorify. True belief and true repentance every grace that brings you nigh. Come you weary, heavy-laden, lost and ruined by the fall. If you tarry ‘till you’re better You will never come at all.”
Keep pressing into Jesus friend!
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How true! And so often what keeps us from prayer is this same notion, “I will clean up my act first, and then I will be able to pray better”—or as you put it, “Surely I must wait until tomorrow when my sin is not so directly before me.” And yet Jesus’ invitation to drink of the living waters hangs upon only our desire to do so.