Living Water

Rivers have always played a huge role in society, for trade and transportation and even for religion (synagogues were required to be within a certain distance of running water). In the original Hebrew, the phrase “running water” also could also be translated “living water” and the idea of living water runs deep through scripture. Over and over again in scripture it’s a picture of human flourishing.

Today, read over these passages with an openness to what God might be saying to you about flourishing. Sure, they are about water, but let that image speak to your mind and heart and imagination about what it means to really live (these are just a few of the passages that could be chosen). Let the Spirit speak to you now:

A river watering the garden flowed from Eden. - Genesis 2:10

Blessed is the one… whose delight is in the law of the Lord, and who meditates on his law day and night. That person is like a tree planted by streams of water, which yields its fruit in season and whose leaf does not wither—whatever they do prospers. - Psalm 1:2-3

Fruit trees of all kinds will grow on both banks of the river. Their leaves will not wither, nor will their fruit fail. Every month they will bear fruit, because the water from the sanctuary flows to them. Their fruit will serve for food and their leaves for healing. - Ezekiel 47:12

Jesus answered, “Everyone who drinks this water will be thirsty again, but whoever drinks the water I give them will never thirst. Indeed, the water I give them will become in them a spring of water welling up to eternal life.” - John 4:13-14

Then the angel showed me the river of the water of life, as clear as crystal, flowing from the throne of God and of the Lamb​ ​down the middle of the great street of the city. On each side of the river stood the tree of life, bearing twelve crops of fruit, yielding its fruit every month. And the leaves of the tree are for the healing of the nations. - ​Revelation 22:1-2