Seeking a Relationship with God, the Source of Living Water

Niagara Falls, NY
Photo by Katie Rea

“Everyone needs thirty minutes of prayer a day, except when they are busy. Then they need an hour.”
-St. Francis de Sales

I felt the Holy Spirit stirring me to write about a devotion I listened to earlier this week. For the Lenten season, I’m participating in the Hallow’s Lent Pray40 Community Prayer Challenge for 2023: Imitation of Christ, as well as reading The Bible in a Year. In The Source of Living Water session, Jonathan Roumie and Jim Caviezel, both actors who have portrayed Jesus, reminded us how Jesus is the source of our living water.

This is a considerable statement. Water is a significant element in the universe. 70% of water covers the earth. 55% to 78% of water makes up a human body. Water is the source of life itself. I’ve read how water is a significant theme in the Bible as “water” is mentioned 722 times.

We use baptism with water to symbolize our new life in Christ. We thirst for God and as we seek a relationship with Him, we dwell in Jesus’ living water. We receive his Holy Spirit. So long as we continue to pray and seek God, the water doesn’t dry up.

The religious writer Father Jean-Baptiste Chautard was also mentioned in the Hallow session. Father Chautard states in his book, The Soul of the Apostolate, how he uses the image of a channel or a reservoir to show how we are spiritually. The channel gives and gives until it runs out of water. When we lack a regular prayer life and stop seeking God, we dry up. But the reservoir gives and receives water representing a life connected with God. Like the reservoir, we continually are filled with living water, the Holy Spirit.

It is an interesting thought that we get to choose to be whatever water vessel we wish to be, whether a channel or a reservoir. We can be a raging river which connects from the springs and eventually flows into the mighty oceans. Or we can simply be a spring which pops up when there is abundant rain but dries up again as soon as the weather turns. We can be an old wineskin where God was once important, but no longer so in our lives. We can be a water source which has soured. We choose what water vessel we may encompass.

God loves us and seeks a relationship with us. God seeks us and woos us, but it is ultimately our decision. We have the choice of what type of relationship we want with God.

We can choose to live a lifestyle that allow us access to God. We can stay more connected to God and learn to trust and fully depend on Him.

There are times when trusting God can be difficult. The seas of life can turn rough, or you’ve lost your direction. We all need a safe harbor at times. Spiritual Direction can help us see our interior to what God may be discerning for us or desires for us. A Spiritual Director can also guide us in our spiritual formation. For each day we are given, it is a chance to grow and learn from God. Be careful not to stagnate.

The interior heart longs to be filled with God’s love, this living water. Focus first on building your unique relationship with God. Seek God and be filled as the reservoir.