Stay Close To Christ, He Is The Living Water!

Stay Close To Christ, He Is The Living Water! 

Jeremiah 17:7-8 “Blessed are those who trust in the Lord, whose trust is the Lord. They shall be like a tree planted by water, sending out its roots by the stream. It shall not fear when heat comes, and its leaves shall stay green; in the year of drought, it is not anxious, and it does not cease to bear fruit.”

I really like this imagery. I can see this tree being planted by the water and can envision it sending its roots out to get the water. It doesn’t have to fear when it gets hot because it has ready access to water. It is not worried when water is scarce as it has its very own supply. I think this is a great metaphor for our trust in the Lord. 

When we trust in the Lord and trust the Lord, we have access to the Living Water that Jesus talks about to the woman at the well. Jesus is all the spiritual nourishment we will ever need for our souls to thrive. Yet, we need access to it; we need to be close to Him. The tree in this water was planted near the water. However, it still needed to send out its roots to get the water. We need to do the same if we want the nourishment that God is happily willing to provide for us. 

We live in a time where access to Jesus is easily accessible, at least in the United States where I live. We are free to worship as we like. Bibles are not that expensive, and if you have a smartphone with apps, you can get the Bible App for free. This will not only give you the Bible, but it has almost all, if not all, the various translations. It also has the bible in 130 or so different languages. On this You Version Bible app, there are also countless Bible studies for free. Then you also have rosary apps to help you say the rosary. There is a Divine Mercy app that helps you say the Divine Mercy Chaplet. There are numerous apps to have prayers, meditations, talks, etc. There is no shortage of ways that you can connect with God through His Word and through prayer. 

There are also daily masses where you can go and receive the body and blood of Christ every day. You can also go to Eucharistic Adoration when it is offered at your church. There are also more and more Perpetual Adoration chapels opening. Perpetual Adoration means that you can go and love on Jesus any time of the day. These chapels are open 24 hours a day. However, some have a policy only to let scheduled adorers go throughout the late night hours, so call ahead and let them know if you want to drop in during the middle of the night. 

Then there are also YouTube and Podcasts. You can find someone talking about pretty much any subject you want to hear about on these two platforms. You can find podcasts where priests and ministers put their Sunday sermons for all to here. You can find podcasts that talk about Scripture, almost like a Bible Study. Exploring My Strange Bible is a great one for that! YouTube, you can just put the topic into the search bar, and you will find several videos to watch on each topic you type in the search bar. 

As you can see, we have access to many ways to connect with God. It is not difficult, and yet we still need to reach out, just as the tree above needed to send out its roots. If the tree had just stood tall right where it was and hoped that the water would reach out to it, then it would have died. We can have all this free access to information and yet do nothing with it. The information is there but we need to read it, watch it, go to it, whatever it may be. 

It doesn’t matter how often they offer masses if I am not going to them or how many translations of the Bible I can get if I am not even looking. We need to actively search for ways to connect to the Lord. He is our nourishment, our peace. He will provide us with what we need to get through the storms, but we need to be prepared. We need to have our roots set down deep, right next to Him. 

We need to be in God’s Word, whether it is a printed Bible you hold in your hands or if it is in the Bible app. Or you could do the Bible in a Year podcast with Father Mike. He reads a bit of the Bible to you each day and then describes what he just read. He explains in a way that is easy to understand. I listened to that podcast for the first two years it was out, and then I switched to the Catechism of the Catholic Church. That is also a great one to help you learn more about the Catholic Faith. We need to be connected to the Word of God. We need to read it, study it, and memorize some of it. The Word of God helps us learn more about God; it helps us understand Him better. 

We can’t trust His promises if we don’t even know what He promises us. One easy way to connect with God is to just talk with Him. Bring Him all your cares and worries. When you are trying to make a decision about something, bring it to the Lord and ask Him what you should do. Then listen for what he says you should do. If you ask God, He will answer; we just have to be ready to listen. You can talk with the Lord anywhere. You don’t have to talk out loud, although you can do that too. You can have a silent conversation with the Lord while you are in the grocery store waiting to check out or just while walking through the aisles. You can talk with God while you are driving to and/or from work or when you are stuck in traffic. I like to start my mornings talking with God. I don’t do it every morning, unfortunately, but I would like to. 

However it is that you want to reach out and search for the Lord is great. Your way of reaching out can be different than my way. I just thought I would list a few ways in case you weren’t sure how you could do it. I know we are all busy, and it seems we don’t have enough time in the day to reach out to God. Trust me when I say everything gets easier when you take the time to reach out to God, kind of like the tree in the verse above. Its life was easier because it was planted close to the water, and it could just send out its roots to collect the water. What if it had been further away? What if it wasn’t anywhere near water? How hard would it be for this tree to get the nourishment it needed? This is true with us too. What if we aren’t anywhere near the Lord? What if we aren’t sending out our roots to gather that Living Water to nourish us? Where would we be then? How hard would it be for us to get the nourishment we need? Stay close to the Lord! 

Dear Heavenly Father, I ask you to bless all those who listen to this episode. Lord, we ask you to help us stay close to you. If we are struggling to fit this into our schedule, I ask you to give us clarity. I ask you to send the Holy Spirit to help us make this a priority in our lives. We need you, Lord; we know this. Help us to spend more time with you. We love you, and we ask all of this in accordance with your will and in Jesus’s holy name, Amen. 

Thank you so much for joining me on this journey to walk boldly with Jesus. If you are wondering how you can increase the time you spend with the Lord without adding anything else to your already busy schedule, CLICK HERE to get my free audio training on how to invite Jesus into the everyday things you are already doing. I look forward to seeing you on Monday. Remember, Jesus loves you, and so do I! Have a blessed day!

Today’s Word from the Lord was received in November 2023 from someone in my Catholic Charismatic Prayer Group. If you have any questions about the prayer group or the Words received, please email [email protected]. Today’s Word from the Lord is “When you think you have nothing left, there is more. When you think you are at the end of it all, there is more. You are my warriors. You are my children. You are my love, and I honor you because you honor me, and with that, I give you more.”

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