To The Bride # 3

Dear Church

We have spent far too long pursuing other sources of life and need to return to Christ Himself. We have seen in this study that there is no substitute for the presence of God.

Now it is time for us to return to our first love, the Great Physician Himself. He alone has the answers to all our needs. He has come that we might have life in all its abundance. We need to seek Him as this woman did, pressing through the obstacles until we touch Him afresh.

How easily we turn aside, as Jeremiah said: 'My people have committed two evils: They have forsaken Me, the fountain [source] of living waters, to hew for themselves cisterns, broken cisterns that can hold no water' (Jeremiah 2:13). These broken cisterns can be anything we substitute in place of Christ Himself. They can be ministry gifts, congregations, reputations. God is never to become simply a means to an end. He is the End. 

God is Our All in All

Paul counted all else but Christ as rubbish (see Phil. 3:8). David said, 'Besides You, I desire nothing on earth' (Psalm 73:25). David had climbed to the pinnacle of position and power and yet was not satisfied.

Like the prodigal we need to arise and forsake everything that we thought could satisfy, return to the Father's house, and fall into the arms of the Father again. Charles Stanley conveys my thought clearer than I can when he writes:

"I believe with all my heart that it is impossible to be both goal-oriented and God-oriented at the same time. One orientation will always take precedence over the other ... when our desire to achieve takes the lead several things happen in our relationship with God. He becomes a means to an end rather than the End. We tend to use God rather than worship Him. We find ourselves seeking information about Him rather than transformation by Him."

Just like the woman whose life was ebbing away we need to reach out and take hold of the only source of life - Christ Himself. He and He alone is the answer to all our needs and desires.

Dear Church, let us respond to His invitation. "If any man thirst, let him come unto Me, and drink .." (John 7:3).

~David Ravenhill~

(the end)