Drink water

When you arrive in the Army, one of the first things you receive is your canteen and you are told to drink, drink again, and keep on drinking. The Army is serious about hydration. After graduating from AIT, it felt weird not having a canteen hanging from my shoulder, my belt, or attached to my hand. In our first week at reception, we carried a onequart in our canteen everywhere we went. In basic, we had a two-quart canteen hanging from our shoulder, and in AIT, we attached a one-quart to our belts. In training, the importance of water cannot be overstated. After physical training we down our canteens, before leaving a classroom, drink water, at night the canteen is placed by your bed....water, water, and more water!!!

Our drill sergeant used to say, “If you are tired, drink water, if you are hurt, drink water, if you want to quit, drink water, and if you don’t like it, drink water!”

A woman in John 4 of the New Testament also knows what it’s like to be thirsty; therefore she made a trip to a well to draw water. She encountered Jesus there and he asked her for a drink. She was shocked that Jesus would even speak with her, because she was a Samaritan and Jesus was a Jew, but Jesus told her that if she knew who he was, she would ask him for living water. She questioned Jesus about how he could offer water without anything to draw water with, but she was interested because she would never have to come to the well for water again. Jesus answered, “Everyone who drinks this water [well water] will be thirsty again, but whoever drinks the water I give him will never thirst. Indeed, the water I give him will become in him a spring of water welling up to eternal life.”

When you are thirsty, water is definitely important and will help quench your thirst for a time! But when it comes to the spiritual thirst deep down in your soul, what are you doing to quench it?