Good News

DEVOTION

PROVERBS

Prov 25:25

25 Like cold water to a weary soul is good news from a distant land.

NIV

It does not seem that we have many weary travelers today in need of a glass of cold water as we have more than enough places along the way to quench a person’s thirst.  In fact it is not uncommon to see a driver sucking down a bottle of water or other beverage as they travel along the highway next to our vehicle. So then we have to assume this was a cultural time sensitive comparison. Certainly in Solomon’s time people traveled by foot and perhaps might have had a goat skin flask with water, but it would not have been kept cold, to a chilled water upon arrival would have been very satisfy. So too would be good news from their homeland. However, what has that to do with anything today? Well, it would seem the good news has something special within. We have heard the good news in some sense it has come from a distant land. That is a twofold idea. First it came to us here in America from the distant land of Israel. There is where all the history of God and his choosing the Israelites to demonstrate or reveal himself to the world he created. It was to them and among them that he sent his son to be born as a baby and be the long awaited Messiah. There is where Jesus began the good news for the whole world. So in that sense we have received good news from that distant land. But there is a far more distant land from which the good news came. That place is the kingdom of God. Although we have been told the kingdom of God is here, there still a distant location where God resides and Jesus sits at his right hand. Someday we will travel to that place, as Jesus has prepared a place for us and in doing so has promised he would return to take us to that place. That is good news from a distant land. That news refreshes our soul, it brings refreshment to our spirit. We are weary travelers making our way through this life, this world with all its hills and valleys, its ups and down, its good times and not so good times. We experience many different detours along the way, some with aches and pains, some with serious illnesses, and some with our yielded to temptations. But there is the good news flowing like a glass of cold water, giving us that needed refreshment at the end of our journey. But we can be refreshed daily as well, we do not have to travel this life parched. We can carry that cup of cold water with us along each day. Jesus has told us that if we drink the water he gave we will never be thirsty.  

John 4:13-14

13 Jesus answered, "Everyone who drinks this water will be thirsty again, 14 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." 

NIV

So having Jesus in our heart, so to speak, we always have the cup of cold water, we always have a spring of water welling up within us, so that we can offer those who are weary travelers through this life a cup of cold water, the good news.