Looking For Water

Sometimes getting what you prayed for does not always happen immediately... and sometimes it does. 

Today, I prayed for water and I received it from quite an unexpected place. 

"...'Why have you made us come up from Egypt, to bring us in to this wretched place? It is not a place of grain or figs or vines or pomegranates, nor is there water to drink ... So Moses took the rod from before the LORD, just as He had commanded him; and Moses and Aaron gathered the assembly before the rock. And he said to them, 'Listen now, you rebels; shall we bring forth water for you out of this rock?' Then Moses lifted up his hand and struck the rock twice with his rod; and water came forth abundantly, and the congregation and their beasts drank. But the LORD said to Moses and Aaron, 'Because you have not believed Me, to treat Me as holy in the sight of the sons of Israel, therefore you shall not bring this assembly into the land which I have given them.' Those were the waters of Meribah, because the sons of Israel contended with the LORD, and He proved Himself holy among them."  - Numbers 20:5, 9-13

Before I read these words, I prayed for water. I prayed that I would draw out my thirst with Water that is Alive, and not with broken cisterns of idolatry and false contentment. Reading this passage shed so much more light on that prayer than I thought possible...

At first I was afraid. I thought, "Is God trying to tell me something? Is He displeased with my prayer, was it somehow unrighteous?" I resolved to send these thoughts to bed without supper, but a discipline was on the rise. These words weren't meant to condemn me, but rather to warn me -- sternly. I wasn't praying for water from a spirit of complaint, but the line between dependence and contention is sometimes very blurry. 

Numbers tells us that the sons of Israel contended with the Lord... what does this mean? It means that there was an attempt at power, a grappling for achievement. It means that Israel was seeking favor, not based on the Lord and His merit, but on their own deserving. There is also a spirit of malcontent seen here -- there is a heart that says, 'Lord, what do you know? Why aren't you doing anything about this?' I see small fibers of this heart weaving subtly throughout mine. I feel droplets of this blood coursing through my veins. It's not all of me anymore -- the Lord has done the major surgery of redemption -- but it's still part of me. 

The conclusion is this: wait patiently for the water He provides. He will not give you stagnant water -- which you would happily settle for in a time of drought -- He will give you Living Water in due time, even within pages of your impatience. Flip to Numbers 21... He gives them water in verse 16. And what does Israel do? Praise the water. No comment on that particular sickness... it's overwhelmingly frustrating. 

Bottom line: thank him, praise him and trust him. I hope I remember this when I am thirsty.