Springs of Life

My son, pay attention to my words; Incline your ear to my sayings. They are not to escape from your sight; Keep them in the midst of your heart. For they are life to those who find them, and healing to all their body. Watch over your heart with all diligence, for from it flow the springs of life. Proverbs 4:20-23 (NASB)

Water! The lifeline for life. As a general rule, an adult can usually live only three days without water. You can live without food much longer than without water. According to The Global Burden of Disease, a major global study on health factors, 1 out of 4 people do not have access to safe drinking water. Unsafe water is responsible for an estimated 1.2 million deaths each year. UNICEF reports that almost 2/3 of the world’s population experiences water scarcity for at least one month each year. Over two billion people live in countries where the water supply is inadequate.

Americans consumed 15 billion gallons of bottled water in 2020 making it the top-selling packaged beverage. Consumption created a $36.3 billion retail sales bonanza for distributors with bottled water sales in the United States topping the total GNP of approximately 96 other nations.

Therefore, it is not surprising that the Bible is filled with verses using water as a metaphor for spiritual life. Understanding that pure water is needed to quench physical thirst, so is the need to spiritually guard our heart, “for from it flow the springs of life.”

I don’t normally write about something that I haven’t watched, so I will give this disclaimer, I didn’t watch this year’s Grammy awards. I am sure there were some good moments within the show and some music-worthy performances, but having read numerous articles on the show’s content and seeing some of the broadcast’s highlights, I am not sure it would have been a healthy source of living water for me.

Kees Postma, a Dutch pastor in his book, “The Retreat: A lighthearted and humorous story about a soul searching pastor,” writes “We men (and women) are quite good at protecting what we have. We take out insurance on almost everything we own. We have burglar alarm systems and video doorbells protecting our property, and baseball bats or something equivalent hidden upstairs should it happen that one breaks into our house. But Scripture points our attention to one other thing that we should guard with all we have in us, and that’s our heart. That’s where our insecurities, our hopes and dreams for the future are stored.”

Postma tells a parable about the fictitious village of Wellsprings. It is a perfect little close community that has been there for generations and offers safety to those within its borders. Houses are perfectly maintained, the people are neatly dressed and all the cars are without any dents or scratches. Visitors are amazed at the city’s spotless perfection from no weeds in the yards to no stains on the kid’s clothes. “We will guard everything we own with all vigilance, for in it we find safety and security.”

Yet through the years, the villagers prized only the outward appearance and no one took a concern for the inner workings until the stench of death became overwhelming as several of its citizens died from lead poisoning from the water. Pipes that should have brought clean life-giving water brought deadly water. Instead of maintaining the source of water, the citizens cared only for outward appearances. They will eventually understand that “It is better to guard the inside with all vigilance than brushing up the outside. Better is an old tap with clean water than a designer one with contaminated water running through it.”

Just as a city must protect the water source, more so should we guard our hearts with all diligence. We can be Hollywood styled, have a picture-perfect physique, and drive a classy car, yet walk around with a dead heart. Jesus confronted the Pharisees, who were lovers of material things by saying, “You are the ones who justify yourselves in the sight of others, but God knows your hearts.” –Luke 16:14-15

Gary Chapman, long-time pastor, and writer said of himself that he prays, “God, keep my heart. Because if God keeps your heart, and your heart beats with his heart, you’re not going to get very far off the road.”

If the general rule is you can live only three days without water, imagine what happens if you don’t replenish your heart regularly? Instead of “springs of life” our hearts become cesspools of “evil thoughts, murders, adulteries, sexual immoralities, thefts, false testimonies, slander” according to Jesus. (Matthew 15:16-20)

The Gospel of John captures the beautiful and life-changing encounter between Jesus and the Samaritan woman at the well. Instead of being able to rest during the mid-day heat like the other women, we read the story of this broken woman who bears the pain of her past carrying her pots to the well in the heat of the day. Yet she will find in her search for physical water the ultimate gift of living water. Jesus said, “But whoever drinks from the water that I will give him will never get thirsty again. In fact, the water I will give him will become a well of water springing up in him for eternal life.” (John 4:14)

Just as the woman came to the well thirsty, we live in an age when people are coming thirsty but are going to dry wells. The world’s attention may have been focused on the Grammys but God was doing something unique among the students on the campus of Asbury University in Kentucky. What began as a routine chapel service on February 8, 2023, has become a unique outpouring of God’s presence that is touching the lives of students on campus and around the world. Fifty-three years ago, on the same campus, when the nation faced similar conditions of violence, racial division and hatred, a movement of God was felt! Could this be the time when we again see a fresh movement of God?

“If anyone is thirsty, let him come to me and drink. The one who believes in me, as the Scripture has said, will have streams of living water flow from deep within him.”—Jesus

Come, Lord Jesus!
God is great!