Getting Enough Water?

Here in north MS we are under an "Excessive Heat Warning" for the next few days. Scary! The NWS says "THE HOTTEST AIR OF THE SUMMER WILL SPREAD INTO THE MIDSOUTH OVER THE NEXT FEW DAYS. THE HOT TEMPERATURES IN COMBINATION WITH HIGH HUMIDITY WILL RESULT IN A PROLONGED AND DANGEROUS HEAT WAVE. HEAT INDEX READINGS WILL PEAK AT LEVELS BETWEEN 110 AND 117 DEGREES ACROSS ALL OF THE MIDSOUTH. OVERNIGHT LOWS WILL FAIL TO DROP BELOW 80 DEGREES IN SOME LOCATIONS. They caution us to make sure we stay hydrated by drinking plenty of liquids this week. The best thing is to drink plenty of water.

I am not very good at drinking lots of water. It's not that I dislike water but I just forget to drink it! But I'm going to try very hard this week to drink more water than usual just as a precaution.

I have one plant that lives in my house now. It's a vine that Sharon, my Pastor's wife, gave me for my birthday probably seven or eight years ago. This vine has set the record for the longest living plant to ever belong to me! When someone gives me a plant my husband always says, "Poor thing...it doesn't know it will die soon!" ha Sad but that's about the truth! I just do not have a green thumb. Back to my little vine though. Last week I noticed that it was lying flat down on the soil in it's pot. Limp. And pale. I wasn't sure when I had given it a drink of water last but evidently it had been too long! I gave it a big glass of water that day and the next and waited to see what happened. Amazingly enough it revived! This is not the first time this amazing thing has happened! It's the most robust plant I've ever had or else it would not still be with me. Now you can hardly tell it almost starved to death. All its leaves are green and healthy looking again except for just one or two which were probably beyond hope!

Water....H2O.... is absolutely necessary for physical life. But what about spiritual life? In John 4: 13-14 Jesus is talking to the Woman at the Well who has drawn up some water for Him to drink. Here's what He tells her: "Jesus answered and said unto her, Whosoever drinketh of this water shall thirst again: But whosoever drinketh of the water that I shall give him shall never thirst; but the water that I shall give him shall be in him a well of water springing up into everlasting life." Water that comes from a well will sustain our physical life but in a few minutes or hours we will be thirsty again. The water of everlasting life through Jesus Christ will keep on quenching our spiritual thirst forever!

Another thing we use water for is for cleaning. I would hate to have to go without water for washing dishes, mopping floors, washing my hands or taking a shower! I remember when our son John was in Iraq in the Marine Corps and had to go for days and weeks without water to bathe in. How it made this mother's heart ache. And so it is with our spiritual lives also. We need to wash our spirits often with the reading of God's Word. Ephesians 5: 26 says: "That he might sanctify and cleanse it with the washing of water by the word,"

Be careful these hot summer days to get enough water!

Both in your body and in your spirit.

Marilyn