Water For the Thirsty

Wednesday April 6, 2016

Women Connect ~ short weekly post to inspire and encourage.

For I will pour water on the thirsty land, and streams on the dry ground; I will pour out my Spirit on your offspring, and my blessing on your descendants. Isaiah 44:3

This scripture got me this week after it was shared in church on Sunday morning.

So this is what our God does. He pours out water on dry and thirsty land and causes streams to flow and run and seep into parched and used up ground.

That’s the ground one might normally pass over and dismiss as good for nothing.

See we might think that this water is only poured out on those fields that are green and lush and fertile, we might think that that’s where God’s favour and blessing must be – – – but it’s not so – He pours water on those who are dried up and done for and about to shrivel up for lack of it. That’s the goodness of our God. That’s His heart of love for us.

So theres hope for us all.

See theres been times when I thought that God’s blessing was for others but not for me. For those more right, with more faith or less sin than me, for those who prayed much and served better, for those lovelier or more interesting or more clever. For those with a better pedigree than I’ll ever have without a heart full of hurt, less broken, less maimed.

– – – – and then God showed me this

Let no foreigner who has bound himself to the LORD say, “The LORD will surely exclude me from his people.” And let no eunuch complain, “I am only a dry tree.”

For this is what the LORD says: “To the eunuchs who keep my Sabbaths, who choose what pleases me and hold fast to my covenant–to them I will give within my temple and its walls a memorial and a name better than sons and daughters; I will give them an everlasting name that will endure forever.

And foreigners who bind themselves to the LORD to minister to him, to love the name of the LORD, and to be his servants, all who keep the Sabbath without desecrating it and who hold fast to my covenant–these I will bring to my holy mountain and give them joy in my house of prayer. Their burnt offerings and sacrifices will be accepted on my altar; for my house will be called a house of prayer for all nations.” Isaiah 56:3-7

Now that’s some good news. The goodness of God for all, for you and for me – simply by saying yes to Him.

Notice He sees the exact pain, the specific loss, the unique shape of the longing. To the eunuch as good as property, stripped of their identity with no hope of a family or a normal life – God promises an identity – a name that will continue better than descendants, a name that will be remembered and honored. The alien in a foreign country with no citizens rights and at the mercy of another countries laws – God promises a place and acceptance and inclusion.

Water for the thirsty.

Hope for the hopeless.

Rivers in the desert.

If you think for some reason your counted out of all that God has or that God can’t use you in this glorious kingdom of His, lets think about some of the “issues” these ones had.

Noah had a drinking problem.
Sarah was barren and laughed at God
Hagar was rejected and sent away after serving faithfully
Esther was an orphan and taken from the only home she knew
Leah was unloved
Joseph was abused and rejected by his family
Moses stuttered and felt inferior
Gideon was afraid
Rahab was a prostitute
David committed adultery and murder
Elijah struggled with depression
Naomi was grief stricken
Job went bankrupt
Martha tried to work herself good
Mary had her head in the clouds
Peter denied Christ
The disciples fell asleep when they should have been praying
Paul was an over the top religious zealot

All of them seen. All of them chosen.

And he chose things that are powerless to shame those who are powerful. God chose things despised by the world, things counted as nothing at all, and used them to bring to nothing what the world considers important. 1 Corinthians 1:28

If you think theres something about you that counts you out of His goodness – it doesn’t !!

If you think theres something you’ve done that counts you out of God’s blessing, there isn’t.!!

He is “ the Lord God who gathers the outcasts” (Isaiah 56:8).

The left out, the alone, the unknown, the rejected, the cursed, the troubled, the hurting, the thirsty and parched – these are the ones Jesus came for, these are the ones He calls His own, these are the ones He brings under God’s covering into the river of His blessing. No longer left out or alone or unknown, nor rejected, nor cursed, nor forsaken. Not any more.

This is the goodness of our God.

The grace of God means something like: here is your life. You might never have been, but you are because the party wouldn’t have been complete without you. Frederick Buechner