Recipe for a Successful Spiritual Life
I have given you two recipes for success:
- Family Stew (family success);
- Personal Pan Pizzaz (career success).
Our last recipe is for spiritual success regardless of your family or career situation. In order to have success on a spiritual lever you have to drink the "living water."
1. Water
Who knew 25 years ago that we would pay more for a bottle of tap water than a can of Coke? But it is a fact. Companies offer every "kind" of water with all types of marketing spins… Pure water, enriched water, flavored water, spring water, water from glaciers, water from Fiji, from mountains, streams, secret places, even the back river (not a big seller). The promise of these various waters is that they either make you healthy or cool, or both.
For this privilege we pay 2 to 5 dollars a bottle and are quickly filling up landfills with empty plastic bottles that will take a thousand years to decompose.
2. Living Water
Now the one thing that these types of water never promise is life itself – only to improve the life you have.
The water I am talking about actually gives you another kind of life in addition to the one you already have; it is called eternal life. You see earthly water sustains earthly life.
The "living" water I am talking about creates and sustains eternal spiritual life.
Jesus talked about this living water to a woman he met one hot day in Samaria. He asked her for a drink of regular water but said to her, "If you only knew the gift God has for you and who I am, you would ask me, and I would give you living water."
- John 4:10
This is the water I am talking about to you today. I do not have a recipe for it, I just drink it and recommend that you do also. I can tell you, however, 3 things about this water:
#1 – What it is.
It is God's Word. The word of God is the living water. Reading it, sharing it, hearing it, thinking about it… This is how you "drink" it.
#2 – What it does.
It changes you into a God-like person. The more you drink, the more you respond to it, the more you become like Christ. In other words, you become "alive" like He is "alive", the living water changes the quality of your life experience.
#3 – Why we need it.
- Without earthly water we can only stay alive a month or so at most.
- Without "living water" we cannot live longer than the body will live.
Jesus' invitation to the Samaritan woman is open to us as well today. Those who drink the living water He offers will experience a regenerated life in this world and an eternal life in the next.
The living water is the most precious gift a family can share because it guarantees that they will be together forever.
Summary
Well this completes our 3 part series on the 3 Recipes for Success:
- Family Stew
- Career Pizza
- Living Water