I call it soda. Some call it pop. Still others call it soda pop. Cola is my favorite ... Coke actually. I think you know what I'm talking about. For many years now, Americans have had a love affair with soda. There's nothing that tastes better on a hot summer day than to come into the house from the sweltering heat, grab your favorite ice-cold soda, flop down on the couch, and just let the summer heat dissolve into that sweet carbonation.
As I was thinking about this article, the Lord began to speak to me about "Christian Cola." Don't write me off as a nut case just yet; stick with me. I have been feeling very dry lately with life in general. And it seems like the more I try to quench my thirst, the thirstier I get. It's as if some big joke is being played on me, and I don't have the sense to stop and figure out what's going on. But anyone who has ever felt that way and goes to God for the answers can tell you, He always puts His finger on the problem and helps you work your way out of it.
He began to show me that all the things I was filling my life with, trying to quench my thirst, are like soda. You know what I mean. It tastes great at first and at first, you are satisfied. But within just a few minutes of finishing the first one, your mouth gets all pasty again and you need another drink. The more you drink, the thirstier you get.
God has created each human being with an inborn desire to reach beyond ourselves for fulfillment. He knows, and every true believer in Christ knows, that thirst is satisfied only in Him.
Jesus, in speaking with the woman at the well, said, "Everyone who drinks this water will be thirsty again, but whoever drinks the water I give him will never thirst. Indeed, the water I give will become in him a spring of water welling up to eternal life." (John 4: 13-14).
Since Adam and Eve sinned and were thrust out of God's perfect garden, mankind has been in a struggle to replace our need for God's living water with anything else. Satan is more than happy to oblige by giving us "soda" of every color and flavor. But God has been there all along, pleading with us, holding out His hands to us, longing for us to come back to Him. He knows, because He created us ... that only His water can refresh us.
You may be saying the same thing the woman said to Jesus some 2000 years ago: "Sir give me this water so that I won't get thirsty and have to keep coming here to draw water." Jesus is the Living Water. If you are tired of chugging the Christian Cola that never really quenches your thirst, all you have to do is stop wherever you are and cry out to God from your heart. Everyone who sincerely looks for God will find Him.
Come. Take a drink of the water God is offering you.
~ Pastor Todd
