The Springs of Life

The Springs of Life
As well the singers as the players on instruments shall be there: all my springs are in thee.

Psalm 87 v 7


The Lord God is the source and substance of all the love, joy, peace and blessings of our lives. The world and its people will find their source in wealth, knowledge, pleasure, power and fame. But whatever is not from the throne of God and of His Son Jesus will be so full of thorns. The wealthy, the powerful and the famous unwittingly wear a crown of thorns. But Jesus embraced the agony of the cross willingly so that we will experience the ecstasy of union with God or eternal salvation. God is an eternal Being and therefore whatever He does, He does eternally. The living waters that Christ gives us is given freely as grace. Nothing we do can earn its supply. We can never learn it too. The waters of our salvation will flow like a spring forever. A river can dry up but a spring never dries up. But a spring can turn into a river.

The source of our joy are the Word of God and prayer. As we immerse ourselves in the living waters of the Word and prayer, an inexplicable joy that nothing in the world can give, springs up from deep within our heart and soul. This is the joy of the Holy Spirit that bubbles and flows like a river unceasingly. Our joy makes us break out into song and dance in uninhibited worship of the Creator-Saviour like David the shepherd-King of Israel who composed most of those beautiful songs that we today call psalms. Our bodies and minds become the very instrument or many-stringed harp of God and our life’s testimony of His grace, our song. At times, some of our springs will be blocked or dammed or choked by our own thoughts, words and actions or those of others. But the Lord of the springs of life will re-open these sources of blessings.
Psychologists tell us that all our responses are variations of the primeval fight or flight syndrome but the Lord says, “ Your life is not fight or flight but flow.” We become channels of the love, peace, mercy, power and grace of the Lord. Like musical fountains in a garden, these springs will rise and fall for when the spring of strength falls, the spring of faith will rise, when the spring of joy falls, the fountain of peace will rise, when the fountain of justice falls, the stream of grace and mercy will rise sky-wards. The springs of our health, finances, family, well being, creativity, ministry and contribution also arise in the Lord. The springs that arise in the Lord are inexhaustible. Each uni-verse is a spring of the Lord and can be the source of much blessing and rejoicing in our lives. Scripture says, “ Draw water with joy from the wells of salvation.” The spring flows on forever but it is our responsibility to draw the water we need from the wellsprings. We need to appropriate the blessings of salvation by joyfully exercising our faith in the Word by prayer. We should not strike the rock with anger or impatience like Moses but declare the Word gently. If we do not draw with the right attitude of faith, assurance and joy, the springs can turn into the waters of Massa and Meribah- symbols of rebellion, lack of faith and bitterness.

Prateep V Philip