A River Runs Through You

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.”

In the beginning, God planted a garden. And like a good gardener, he provided the perfect environment for his garden to flourish. Genesis describes a river that “flowed out of Eden to water the garden” (Genesis 2:10).

After the Fall, God banished Adam and Eve from the Garden of Eden, appointing cherubim and a flaming sword to guard the tree of life (see Genesis 3:23-24). Ever since, humankind has been searching for Eden, longing for a drink from the river of God to quench our thirst, searching in all the wrong places for satisfaction.

We take our empty cups to different streams, yearning for a sip to satisfy our discontented souls. We dip them into the trickle of worldly affirmation, only to discover that the drops of water dry up before they even reach our tongues. We beg for a drink from the well of achievement, only to find that it’s shallow and unable to quench our thirst. We search for streams in status, appearance, relationships, or financial security, hoping to find something that will satisfy us, but we come up empty-handed.

Just as a garden cannot flourish without God’s provision, we cannot flourish when we are not in him.

As we hold empty cups in our hands, God calls to us, “Come, everyone who thirsts, come to the waters; and he who has no money, come, buy and eat! Come, buy wine and milk without money and without price” (Isaiah 55:1). The invitation couldn’t be more enticing: come and drink from God’s river of grace for free! Soak up his salvation through Christ Jesus and find true satisfaction forever!

Christ is the river of living water that always satisfies and never runs dry. Not only does he fill our empty cups, but he makes them overflow (see Psalm 23:5; John 4:14; 7:37-39). When we drink deeply from the well of God, he makes his river of grace run through us, a steady stream of living water that flows from Christ alone. We still experience spiritual dryness as we endure life in the desert outside the Garden of Eden, but a new eternal garden awaits, where the “river of the water of life, bright as crystal” flows directly from the throne of God (Revelation 22:1-2).

So bring your empty cup to Christ, the living water, who satisfies our souls and leads us on paths of righteousness (see Psalm 23). When the heat of life makes you thirsty, drink deeply from the well of God’s Word. In Christ, a river runs through you, leading straight back to him.

Word before World Christ is the living water that always satisfies and never runs dry.

Grow in Grace Think through your day and note the times that feel most draining for your soul. What would it look like to integrate the deep refreshment of reading God’s Word into that part of your day?