The world offers a thousand fleeting pleasures!

Charles Spurgeon, et al.

(You will find it helpful to LISTEN to the Audio, as you READ the text below.)

John 4:13-14, "Everyone who drinks this water, will be thirsty again; but whoever drinks the water I give him, will never thirst. Indeed, the water I give him will become in him a spring of water welling up to eternal life."

We see in these words of Jesus, the mirage of worldly satisfaction. The world offers a thousand fleeting pleasures, each promising contentment, but leaving the soul emptier than before. Wealth, success, romance, entertainment--these are the unsatisfying waters of this world, and those who drink them will always thirst again. Many chase after these things, believing that if they only had a little more--more money, more fame, more indulgence--that they would finally be fulfilled. King Solomon testifies that this is a vain pursuit: "Meaningless! Meaningless! Utterly meaningless! Everything is meaningless!" Ecclesiastes 1:2

Sinful pleasures, though they may be sweet in the mouth, are bitter in the belly. They are poisoned wells, that lead only to destruction! Those who seek their satisfaction in these noxious things, will find that they have exchanged their everlasting souls for poor fleeting trifles. Their end is eternal thirst--eternal regret--eternal torment in Hell. Jesus Himself warns us: "What will it profit a man, if he gains the whole world, and loses his soul? Or what will a man give in exchange for his soul?" Mark 8:36

Yet Jesus offers something infinitely greater--living water. This is not a temporary refreshment that fades away, but a perpetual spring welling up to eternal life. Those who drink of this water will never thirst again, for in Jesus all the soul's deepest needs are met. Those whom Jesus has truly saved, have experienced the fleeting nature of worldly pleasures, and His all-satisfying sufficiency. This is why Paul could say: "I consider everything a loss, compared to the surpassing greatness of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whose sake I have lost all things. I consider them rubbish, that I may gain Christ!" Philippians 3:8

To those who drink the "living waters", the promise is not only genuine satisfaction in this life, but eternal joy with Him forever. The well of this living water never runs dry. While the wicked will suffer everlasting thirst in Hell, those who belong to Jesus will forever drink of His rivers of delights! To have Jesus is to have everything. He is our eternal portion, our supreme joy, and our greatest treasure!

Believer, rejoice! If you have Jesus, you have a spring of life that can never be exhausted. Let the world chase its empty pleasures; you have a Savior who is infinitely better. He is not only the giver of living water--He is the water itself. Drink deeply of Him, and you will never thirst again!

Charles Spurgeon:

"We never know the preciousness of Jesus, until we experience the emptiness of everything else."

"Come then and drink, O thirsty soul, and ask no more--for this fountain will never be empty, and this water will never lose its soul-satisfying power!"

"He who drinks deeply of Jesus, shall find that eternity itself cannot exhaust the sweetness and satisfaction that He alone can give!"

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You may want to listen to Anne Steele's uplifting hymn, "And did the Holy and the Just!"