May 4: REFRESHING OR LESS THAN SATISFYING?
“I know your works, that you are neither cold nor hot. I could wish you were cold or hot.” (Revelation 3:15)
How refreshing is a cup of cold water! And whosoever shall give to drink unto one of these little ones a cup of cold water only in the name of a disciple, verily I say unto you, he shall in no wise lose his reward (Matthew 10:42 KJV). A true disciple of the Lord Jesus is positioned to bring refreshment to others and even to the Lord Himself. Someone who has been out working in the heat will be especially thankful for a literal drink of cold water. Those around you who are thirsting for the living water * of life—whether or not they are aware of this, their greatest need—can be encouraged and refreshed by you when you speak the words that the Holy Spirit gives to you.
God Himself is refreshed every time a dear soul recognizes his or her own spiritual coldness and comes to Him directly. This realization will keep such a one from freezing to death! “And the tax collector, standing afar off, would not so much as raise his eyes to heaven, but beat his breast, saying, ‘God be merciful to me a sinner!’” (Luke 18:13) Recognition of one’s own abject spiritual poverty is the only way of recognizing how deep is the need for total and absolute dependence upon the Lord. “Blessed are the poor in spirit, For theirs is the kingdom of heaven” (Matthew 5:3).
Someone ‘on fire for the Lord’ is someone whose empowerment comes from the Holy Spirit. A ‘hot person’ is in readiness to act upon conviction at a moment’s notice. This type of spiritual readiness is the opposite of thoughtless compulsiveness. It is a bright awareness possessed by someone who is ‘dying’ to live out in his life the truths of the word of God. Paul said, “I die daily” (1 Corinthians 15:31). Are you refreshed to know that someone such as Paul made a daily effort to humble himself before Jesus? I need the Holy Spirit in my life every day if I want to be ‘on fire’ for the Lord. But I must ask! (see Luke 11:13 and James 1:5).
The wealthy city of Laodicea was located six miles away from the famous Hierpolis-Pamukkale hot springs. This mineral-rich water, prized for its healing effects, was carried by Roman aqueducts to the city. But it lost its characteristic heat on the way, making the experience of bathing in it or drinking it far less than satisfying. Most of the Lord’s professed people are “six miles away” from Him. One who is neither cold nor hot spiritually is in the most precarious, life-threatening condition indeed! What a tragedy to be so close and live a lukewarm life!
A believer who “soaks daily” in the life-giving truths of God will be delightfully surprised at his readiness to respond effectively to the needs of others. He will find that, in being refreshment to others, he himself is refreshed. Are you a “reservoir” of God’s blessings or do you allow them to “escape” to others?
* ”He who believes in Me, as the Scripture has said, out of his heart will flow rivers of living water.” John 7:38