Water in a dry place. Isaiah 32:2
Are your outward circumstances dry? Are you rich?
Wealthy society is generally as dry as the granite hills. Gold and gospel seldom agree.
Are you poor? Poverty is a dry place to those who are not rich in faith. Are you engaged in business? How often do its problems parch your soul? To rise up early and toil late amid losses and crosses is to dwell in a dry place
Oh to feel the love of Christ flowing! This is to have “rivers of water”. True religion is to have Christ when you are losing money, when checks bounce, and when banks fail. It is sweet to be able to rejoice in Christ even when you are out of work, to have Christ even when your wife is sick, to have Christ even when your precious child has to be buried, to have Christ when your head is aching, to have Christ when your poor body is half starved.
You will never know the sweetness of Christ until you know the bitterness of trials. You cannot know His fullness until you see your emptiness. I pray that it may be your experience to always feel that you are going down and Christ is going up, to become poorer and poorer apart from Him, while knowing more and more of the priceless riches which are yours in Christ Jesus. Christ will be dearer and dearer as you have less and less esteem of yourself.
Christ is “rivers of water in a dry place” (Is. 32:2). “He who believes in Me shall never thirst” (John 6:35).
C.H. Spurgeon
