Not too long ago, I had a friend share some great insight into how God can use us, and how He expects us to be the salt of the earth. In Matthew 5:13, Jesus says, “You are the salt of the earth.” My friend made the reference to saltiness by pointing out that our physical/liter- al saltiness occurs in the midst of our labor. How? Well when we are exerting ourselves, we find ourselves sweating. Sweaty = Salty!
Physically, that makes sense, but what about spiritually, what does that look like? As believers, our saltiness is shown in our obedience to Him; to be His hands and feet to the world around us, both physically and spiritually.
I was biking along the trails around Belle Isle here in Richmond not too long ago. I had been biking for about an hour. That hour was intense, be- cause I was trying to keep up with a group of bicyclists that is far better and more experienced at this than I am. An hour of intense bike riding was all that I could take that afternoon. When I finished up, I stopped and looked at how drenched in sweat I was. Then, as it always does when I have an intense workout, thirst consumed me. And there is only one way to quench that thirst—a nice ice cold bottle of water!
As I sat by the river drinking the bottle of water that I had, the Lord brought two passages to my mind:
John 4:14 which says “whoever drinks of the water that I give will Never be thirsty again.” Now, follow me on this rabbit trail for just a second--In order to physically sweat (be salty) we need literal water. In order to be the spiritual salt of the earth for the Lord we need His living water flowing through us. That seems to be an obvious truth, and something that we will all agree about. However, the second verse was the one that hit me like a hammer.
Jeremiah 2:13 states, “my people have committed two evils: they have forsaken me, the fountain of living waters, and hewed out cisterns for themselves, broken cisterns that can hold no water.”
There are two parts to this passage that can apply to our spiri- tual journey today:
First, we try so hard to do things on our own (“they have forsaken me the fountain of living waters,”. We try to create water, or something that is very similar to water, but in the end, it’s not water. I don’t care how you feel about Gatorade or Power Aid, or any other type of sports drink that might be available, nothing quenches that thirst like actual, physical, clean, cool, crisp water. That same reality exists with spiritual water. We can’t settle for imitation Living Water. We can’t settle for something that looks like it, but really isn’t it. No matter how beautifully packaged the imita- tion might be, anything less than the Living Water of Jesus will NEVER satisfy our soul.
Second, we attempt to contain that power that comes from the Living Water, so that we might control it (“and hewed out cisters for themselves, broken cis- terns that can hold no water”). The Living Water was never meant to be contained. It was meant to flow, but only in the manner that God wants it to--freely, for all people. That is where true strength and peace will be found!
Remember, all that we do has to be done His way, for His purposes, for His glory. Let that living water flow! It brings life!
