Two weeks ago, we closed out our series through the books of 1 & 2 Samuel by focusing on the idea of God being our rock. In essence, the entirety of 1 & 2 Samuel can be summed up as God’s fulfillment of a line from Hannah’s prophetic song: “there is no rock like our God.”

[Sorry, Dwayne Johnson. You are just a rock, not The Rock.]

And, if there is anything that 2020 taught us is that we can’t put our trust and confidence in anything other than our Rock. It was shocking to see just how much a tiny invisible virus could disrupt life as we knew it, in terms of travel, social engagement, education, money, jobs, politics, health care, and access to resources. But, through it all, for the Christian, God proved Himself to be faithful, steadfast, and worthy of our trust and confidence.

“The Lord is my rock and my fortress and my deliverer,

my God, my rock, in whom I take refuge,

my shield, and the horn of my salvation,

my stronghold and my refuge,

my savior; you save me from violence.

I call upon the Lord, who is worthy to be praised,

and I am saved from my enemies. - 2 Samuel 22

As we begin the fast, I wanted us to focus in on the 3 ways we can take full advantage of God as our Rock:

Building on Him
Hiding in Him
Drinking from Him

For the 3 days of the fast, we will focus on these in reverse order, and as we begin to empty ourselves of food (and other things we look to or depend on), let’s be praying and asking God to help us to get our fill, our sustenance from Him.

Earlier this week, I received a video clip from a pastor we are helping to build a well:

Imagine the joy, after digging for more than 3 meters, of finally getting down to the water level and the access to all of water’s life-giving properties!

“If anyone is thirsty, let him come to me and drink. The one who believes in me, as the Scripture has said, will have streams of living water flow from deep within him.” He said this about the Spirit.” - John 7:37-39

We took our kids on a bike ride this past Monday on the new walking path/bike trail that is being built along the north side of the Kok river just east of the superhighway. It was so fun and beautiful, we did 2 loops! Afterward, Marcia—who thoroughly enjoyed the ride—couldn’t help but remark, “I just wish the water wasn’t so brown.” My response was, “I think any river that flows this quickly is going to be brown like this," to which Marcia responded by describing family trips she would take to the Colorado River where the water was so clear you could see the bottom.

It reminded me of the description of the crystal clear River of Life described in Revelation 22:

Then the angel showed me a river of the water of life, as clear as crystal, flowing from the throne of God and of the Lamb down the middle of the main street of the city.

Imagine what a sight that will be! What’s greater yet is that, through the Holy Spirit, we have access

And all drank the same spiritual drink. For they drank from the spiritual Rock that followed them, and the Rock was Christ. - 1 Corinthians 10:4

No matter what is happening in the world or in our lives, we have an opportunity to drink from Christ, our Rock, and have rivers of living water pour forth from deep within us and flow right through the main street of our souls. Lord, we need you. We want more of you. Flow, Spirit, flow!