Springs of Living Water (John 4:14)

 


Wednesday, July 9, 2025


Psalm 22:1-22

1 Samuel 27:1-28:2

John 4:1-15


Springs of Living Water (John 4:14)


[Jesus said] “but whoever drinks of the water that I will give him will never be thirsty again. The water that I will give him will become in him a spring of water welling up to eternal life.”


Our Lord speaks often about giving. Specifically, giving things to us. And quite often, when he speaks of giving us something, he speaks of the Holy Spirit.


We have some concepts of the Holy Spirit. He is spoken of as wind, in that he moves without consulting us, but we know when he has. He is referred to as breath, as the source of life, moving (like the wind, in his own time and by his own intentions) into and from his creatures. If we take the “holy” part of his name, we think of the holiness of God, which always involves fire; and when he came down onto the disciples at Pentecost, they had something like flames of fire on their heads.


Could we then read today’s words from Jesus about a spring of water welling up to eternal life and sense hints about God the Holy Spirit? Spiritual thirst is something like the desire for God’s presence; life is breathed into us by the Holy Spirit, and eternal life is the eternal breath of the Holy Spirit into our souls; and for the spring to be “in us”, well, St Paul speaks elsewhere about the human body being the temple of the Holy Spirit.


Christ’s imagery of living water welling up inside someone sounds awfully like the Holy Spirit. If, then, we sense a spiritual thirst within us, we can ask the Lord not only for our thirst to be quenched, but we can speak to the source of that refreshment: God the Holy Spirit, given to us by our Father by virtue of the Lord Jesus and his atoning work on the cross and victory over the grave.


How is the presence of God the Holy Spirit revealing himself in your life? How might his presence in you benefit those around you?


Come, Holy Spirit, and be a never-failing well of living water to us, that we may know your nearer presence and appreciate your great works among us.

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