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By Billy Graham
People today seek to quench their thirst for satisfaction through all
kinds of means and beliefs — but Billy Graham explains that only Christ truly
satisfies.
Family hardships. Relationship tensions. Indecision and
restlessness… emptiness.
Are you overwhelmed with life — drinking in self-help and
worldly counsel to satisfy your craving for peace and fullness in life?
The living water of Jesus Christ is what you are really
thirsty for.
One day Jesus was walking through Samaria. He was weary, so
he rested at Jacob’s well.
In the heat of the day, a woman came to draw some water.
The Bible says: “Jesus said to her, ‘Give me
a drink.’ … The Samaritan woman said to him, ‘How is it that you, a Jew, ask
for a drink from me, a woman of Samaria?’ … Jesus answered her, ‘If you knew
the gift of God, and who it is that is saying to you, “Give me a drink,” you
would have asked him, and he would have given you living water.’
“The woman said to him, ‘Sir, you have nothing to
draw water with, and the well is deep. Where do you get that living water? Are
you greater than our father Jacob? He gave us the well and drank from it
himself, as did his sons and his livestock.’
“Jesus said to her, ‘Everyone who drinks of this
water will be thirsty again, 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’” (John 4:7-14).
Jesus is the Living Water. This is what all people need,
whether they are in Africa or India or China or the United States.
We all need the spiritual water that Jesus gives. The
Bible says that we are prisoners of “the waterless pit” (Zechariah 9:11).
Think of that—prisoners in a pit with no water.
How long do you think a person can live without drinking
water? Not very long. You can live a long time without food, but not without
water.
Have you ever been really thirsty? So thirsty that you
thought you were going to die? I’m told there is no feeling quite like it.
The Apostle Peter talked about wells without water (2 Peter 2:17).
Think of traveling across the desert and coming to a well
where you believe there is water.
You are thirsty. Your tongue is swollen. Your cheeks and
lips are parched. But when you arrive at the well, there is no water.
“Waterless Pits”
Are you in a “waterless pit” right now? In
your family? In your business?
Maybe you are a young person not knowing what vocation to
follow, not knowing what to do about marriage, not knowing what to do about the
problems you’ve gotten yourself into — you are finding yourself in a pit
without any water.
Maybe you have tried everything to satisfy, to bring peace
and joy to your life, to have a sense of forgiveness and a sense of belonging.
And you haven’t found it. Jesus said, “Everyone
who drinks of this water will be thirsty again” (John 4:13).
Drink of the water of drugs, and you will thirst again.
Drink of the water of fame, and you will thirst again.
Drink of the water of popularity, and you will thirst
again.
Drink of all other waters being offered today, and you will
thirst again.
But drink of the living water that Jesus will give
you, and you will never thirst. Jesus said, “The water that I will give
[you] will become in [you] a spring of water welling up to eternal life” (John 4:14).
What You Thirst For
The Bible says, “Come, everyone who thirsts,
come to the waters; and he who has no money, come, buy and eat” (Isaiah 55:1).
And “let the one who is thirsty come; let the
one who desires take the water of life without price” (Revelation 22:16-17).
Yes, come and buy; it’s without price. Some of you are
thirsting for this—a personal relationship with Christ.
Come to the water! Drink of the living water! Become
excited about Christ! “With joy you will draw water from the wells of
salvation” (Isaiah 12:3).
The wells of salvation are being offered to you. Come and
draw the water with joy!
The Living Fountain
When you come to the water, there’s a satisfaction beyond
anything words can describe. Jesus said, “If anyone thirsts, let him
come to me and drink. Whoever believes in me, as the Scripture has said, ‘Out
of his heart will flow rivers of living water’” (John 7:37-38).
The Samaritan woman had come to that well. She had come by
divine appointment. Jesus was passing by, and he stopped to rest. This woman
came at that moment.
This woman had an empty life. Her expectations in life had
faded. No longer expecting, no longer hoping for anything different, she was on
the same old treadmill.
She had been married five times, and when Jesus spoke to
her, she was living with a man who was not her husband. Having tried nearly
everything, she was miserable, unhappy — thirsty.
“Come to the waters; drink of the living fountain,” Jesus told her.
The woman said, “Sir, give me this water” (John 4:15).
Will you say that? He offers the same living water to you.
Will you accept his offer today?
“Lord Jesus, give me that living water. I want forgiveness
of my sins. I want to know that I’m going to heaven. I want a new life. I’m
tired of the old life I’ve been living. I want something else in life. I
believe that you are the Living Water. I believe that you died for my sins, and
conquered death, so that I can drink of the living water and have eternal life
and a personal relationship with you. Amen.”
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purpose of Crossway has been, from its founding as a not-for-profit ministry in
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implications of the gospel and the truth of God’s Word, for all of life, for
all eternity, and for the glory of God.
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it was written in our 1979 mission statement:
Crossway
is a not-for-profit Christian ministry and exists solely for the purpose of
proclaiming the gospel through publishing and other means in order, by God’s
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