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“I will give freely to him who is thirsty from the spring of the water of life.”
Revelation 21:6b WEB
Humans cannot survive long without water. The person thought to have survived longest without water to drink is Andreas Mihavecz. He was placed in a holding cell by police in 1979. Apparently, communication between shifts was poor as he was forgotten about and left languishing in the cell for 18 days without food or water. He was only 18 years old at the time. It is thought he only survived by licking condescension off the walls which provided just enough moisture to prevent death.
Survival experts suggest that survival is usually possible without any water for approximately three days. But this varies greatly depending on temperature and level of exertion. A person participating in heavy activity in extreme temperatures can sweat as much as 1.5 liters per hour. That can lead to death in a mere hours.1
Jesus knew the importance of water. He knew how good a glass of cold water tastes when thirsty. That’s why he compared salvation to water. It is refreshing to the spiritually thirsty. Water is not only refreshing, it is life giving. Water performs many functions in the body. It regulates body temperature, cushions your joints and brain, flushes out waste, forms saliva and mucus, and most importantly, it gives cells structure.2
As you know, water can be a blessing, but it can also kill. Too much water can prevent airflow to your lungs. Drinking unclean water can cause sickness. Surprisingly, drinking water that is too clean can also be dangerous. Regular filtered water is not 100% pure H2O. Home water filters remove enough of the bad things that the water is clean and safe to drink. But it is not pure. It has a trace amount of minerals and salt. These minerals are beneficial for health and actually make the water safer to drink. They are also what give water its subtle taste.
We need to go back to high school chemistry and biology for a minute. If you recall, ‘osmosis’ is the term to describe a fluid being pulled in one direction through a semipermeable membrane. It will always be pulled toward the solution with a higher concentration. This is how living cells maintain fluid inside their cell wall. They adjust the mineral concentration inside the cell to control the amount of fluid inside. If a cell needs to absorb fluid, then it must make the fluid inside a higher concentration than outside.
When you drink filtered water, it still has some trace minerals in it, so it won’t affect the cells in your mouth or body too much because its concentration is not too different from that of your cells.
If scientists need ultra pure water they use a process call de-ionization. This water is so pure it has nothing in it but hydrogen and oxygen. This is type 1 ultra pure water and is only used for special scientific experiments or manufacturing. It is unsafe to drink. Even drinking type 2 pure water, a step down from type 1, is not good for you. The concentration of minerals is so low that when it comes into contact with your cells, they will absorb it. Osmosis will pull in so much of this water the cells will explode and die.
In a video by James Orgill on his YouTube channel Action Lab, he tries some type 2 water.3 It leaves his tongue and throat feeling burned from all the cells that died due to excessive osmosis. Drinking type 1 water, is said to be able to immediately remove the enamel from your teeth and could kill you.
In the Bible water represents eternal life and more specifically the work of the Holy Spirit upon us that leads to eternal life. The Holy Spirit is vital for eternal life. But God is gentle with us. He knows that full exposure to his purity would kill us (Ex. 33:20). So the Holy Spirit is ever so gentle with us in our fragile, fallen state. The Holy Spirit will never overwhelm us, but draws us gently to God as a cool drink draws us in the heat of the day. The Holy Spirit will always be the one to comfort us. It is the enemy, Satan who seeks to overwhelm and destroy us.
Often times we are the hardest on ourselves. God has infinite mercy on us. But we stop ourselves from accepting it out of fear. We think we can wait and make ourselves a little more pure before we comeback to God. We try to fix ourselves. Satan encourages this lie by reminding us how good God is and that if we work a little harder, we can make ourselves acceptable to him. And so we stay thirsty for that refreshing water only God offers. When you catch yourself thinking this way, stop! You can never make yourself pure! Ask God to give you the purity only he provides. He gives it freely.
When you feel overwhelmed, hot and parched by the stresses of life, turn to God and ask for the Holy Spirit. As it said in the key text, he will give freely of his water to anyone who is thirsty. He can provide the perfect water that will well up inside you as a spring that leads to everlasting life!
Here is a question to ponder:
Have you been trying to make yourself pure on your own? Be honest. If so, ask God for the water only he can give.
Written by David F. Garner
Sources
1. https://www.sciencealert.com/here-s-the-longest-people-have-survived-without-air-food-water-sunshine-or-sleep
2. https://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/290814#benefits
3. https://culinarylore.com/food-science:is-pure-distilled-water-safe-to-drink/