The Mirror of the Word and other works by C.E. White can be purchased on her website, cewhitebooks.com or on Amazon.

“As the deer pants for the water brooks, so my soul pants for you, God. My soul thirsts for God, for the living God; when shall I come and appear before God?”

—Psalm 42:1–2

When a deer is thirsty, it knows to go to the water. But it doesn’t drink from just any source; it finds the flowing water—the living water. It instinctively knows that the moving water is fresh and safe. The deer will only drink from a stagnant pond—potentially full of dangerous bacteria or algae—if it’s the last option.

Our human instincts aren’t quite as good. We frequently find ourselves drinking from the stagnant pools of this world rather than water that flows from our living God.

We drink and drink the tainted water and wonder why we’re thirsty and ill. The voices of the world tell us we simply haven’t drunk enough or we need to try a different pond, so we attempt to quench our heart’s desire with more and different worldly things. Satan is just as happy if we drink from the worldly pond of pride or deceitful riches as he is to keep us at the pool of lust or addiction.

But the more we drink from the world, the more our thirst increases; the less satisfied we become. We’re poisoning ourselves—sometimes slowly and sometimes fast. Anything other than the overflowing fountain of Jesus Christ will do its deadly work in the end.

When our souls pant from thirst, nothing but the true life–giving nourishment of Christ will do. He’s the only source of the spiritual refreshment that will sustain us, and as we come to him, the living water of the Holy Spirit will flow through us and nourish those around us as well.

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