Hi, this is Joni Eareckson Tada and welcome to "Joni and Friends."
Thanks for spending these few minutes with me because I want to tell you what happened this past summer with my friend Bev. She and her family hiked to the bottom of the Grand Canyon – you know how beautiful that can be, right? And you’ve also got to know that the canyon is a formidable challenge for any hiker. Well, the morning they set out for the hike, the weather forecaster said the temperatures would hit the 90s; it was going to be a scorcher. So Bev, her husband, and children left their camping spot on the canyon's rim just as the sun was rising. Before they had hiked down the rim even a couple of hundred yards, Bev's husband stopped the everybody and insisted that they all get out their canteens and take a giant swig of water. "Why in the world stop now? We just started," Bev complained. Her husband explained that everybody needed to drink. But Bev, independent-minded woman that she is, thought otherwise. Her idea of wise water management was to wait until later, when she really was thirsty and needed a drink.
Much to Bev's chagrin, a short time later, her husband stopped the family again. In fact, they stopped at regular intervals to drink. Everyone but Bev, that is. After all, she had heard restrooms weren't around. Finally after several hours, they arrived at the bottom of the canyon. And they enjoyed a brief picnic, rested a bit, and then slung on their backpacks to head up the canyon rim. The incline coming up out of the canyon was steep with temperatures well over one-hundred degrees. And it was not easy putting one foot in front of the other and that's when Bev got in trouble. She found herself falling to the back of the line and pausing often to get her canteen – she drank and drank, but her body didn't seem to get the message. It was parched. Little did Bev realize it, but she felt parched because the cells in her body were. Her body had no reservoir of hydration to sustain Bev through the heat. This was one hiking trip from which my friend learned a good lesson – she learned that when it's hot, don't wait until the last minute to drink.
And you know what, the same exact thing is true for you and I as believers in Jesus. We cannot go for long intervals without prayer and Bible reading and then, in a clinch when something goes wrong, when we find ourselves on an uphill climb, quick grab for grace and find -- voila! -- strength is there. Guess what. It might not be. Because God is not a celestial water boy who “jumps to it” when we snap our fingers because we need Him to come and help – I mean, that is treating God with contempt. And if we do treat Him that way – especially when we hit hard times – we’re in for a sorry surprise. God just may let us struggle for awhile with an empty canteen to teach us a lesson about our relationship to Him.
To find grace in time of need, we all need to drink in God's Word at regular intervals. It’s not enough to take a swig of the Bible reading now and then or to pray intermittently and hope that we’ll be sustained when tough times hit. No, we need to saturate ourselves daily, to hydrate ourselves on the Living Water on a regular basis. It's the only way you and I are going to be prepared when we are faced with those tough, uphill climbs. Isaiah 58:11 puts it this way, "The Lord will guide you continually and satisfy your soul in drought, and strengthen your bones; You shall be like a watered garden, and like a spring of water, whose waters do not fail."
Jesus, the Living Water, as it says of Him in John 4, is offering you a drink today. So don't put him off, thinking you're not thirsty. Drink now from the wellspring of life! And until next time here on "Joni and Friends," remember that that kind of water is to be used with wisdom.
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