Resources/Articles
Drinking Bottled Water
Our country has been on a bottled water binge for a number of years. Many view the spring water or the purified water as “safe drinking.” We are told the packaged water does not have all the additives that municipal water purification plants add to the water before distributing it to the public. Even though water is free from public faucets and drinking fountains, people still purchased bottled water. People choose to pay for something “better for you” than enjoy it at no cost in most public places. Does that mean paying for a product is superior to something you can receive for free?
Water can be obtained freely in any river, creek, or small stream. It is a basic necessity and essential for living. It satisfies at any time of the day, especially when we thirst after exercise or in extremely hot conditions. Whenever there is thirst, we come to the waters. We know where to find it. We know it is FREE, but we have to seek it and find it.
Jesus made a statement to a woman at a well about the physical water which man seeks. “Jesus answered and said unto her, ‘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).
If it was of necessity, what would you do to have “everlasting life?” Do you know your need for heaven? Do you desire it daily? Is it as much a necessity to you as daily water is to your body?
We all must know there is not enough money or possessions in the world to make a deposit toward a place in heaven. Jesus has paved the way (John 14.6; Hebrews 12.2). We could not pay the price our Lord paid. He paid it all. All to Him I owe. I owe Him my life, my all (Matthew 22.37). Instead of believing there is some extraordinary deed or charitable act I can do to “get to heaven,” I need to see how I can reach and drink of the “living water” Jesus provides (John 4.10).
The first consideration should be: How thirsty are you? How empty are you? Is your greatest thirst spiritual or physical? You may believe God, but your belief should carry to “diligently seek Him” (Hebrews 11.6). This is not a one-time quenching of thirst. Our lives should forever long for quenching only in the “living water” provided in Christ. True thirst in Him leads to true fulfillment (Matthew 5.6). As Jesus said in John 4.14, this water Jesus gives “shall become in him a well of water springing up unto eternal life” (consider also Revelation 21.6).
We can thirst for all the world provides, drink its pleasures, and gulp all it offers, but none will achieve the salvation and hope we need, no matter if it is free. This passage says it best: “Has a nation changed its gods, which are not gods? But my people have changed their glory for what does not profit. Be astonished, O heavens, at this, and be horribly afraid: Be very desolate, says the Lord. For My people have committed two evils. They have forsaken Me, the fountain of living waters, and hewn for themselves cisterns - broken cisterns that can hold no water” (Jeremiah 2.11-13).
There is often a price to pay for saving our lives rather than losing them for Christ (Mark 8.36-38). For all we exchange for what Jesus offers to quench our spiritual thirst, remember this: God’s fountain will never run dry. Drink from this life-giving stream today (Psalm 42.1-11).
