Isaiah 55:1

New Living Translation (NLT)

“Is anyone thirsty?
Come and drink—
even if you have no money!
Come, take your choice of wine or milk—
it’s all free!

For Meditation

The day is so fresh in my mind. I only had two hundred Senegalese francs, the equivalent of thirty five US cents, on me. My bank was quite new in the country and so they only had one office in downtown Dakar, quite a distance from my house in one of the suburbs. Unable to take a taxi, I walked to the nearest point where I could access a Car Rapide, the local bus system. With very little experience of the country, I heard the driver mates shouting something that sounded like, “Dakar”, so I hopped on. Realizing quite late that I was heading in the wrong direction, I got off. What do I do with only fifteen cents in my pocket? Who do I ask for money and who will give to me – a fine dressed man like me? Will I not look like one of those street beggars that I loathed? You see how God deals with us? Where was my dignity as the new Pastor of the International Baptist Church? How would my congregation members take me if I should call one for help or someone saw me begging in the street? But I had to get to the bank!

1. Have you been there before? Have you been left with no money or food for the day?
2. How did you feel when you gathered courage and went to a friend, hoping they would help, but only to be turned away with nothing? How did your ego fare?
3. So, are you not glad you have a Father who cares so much for you that He looks after your needs and makes provision for them (Gen. 22:14)?
4. Is it not refreshing to hear Him call out to you to come and drink from Him and be refreshed? And the best part is, “even if you have no money” (Is. 55:1)? Has He ever turned anybody away? No, never!
5. And here is the deal. If anyone feels thirsty from the heat of this world and starvation for truth and real life, this call is for you. Calvary calls (Jn. 3:16; Rev. 3:20) and the respondent is always received into God’s family through Christ (1:12-13). Then, and only then, do they qualify to sit at the table of the Almighty and feast on His delicacies (2 Sam. 9:7). Is that not the essence of Christ’s sacrifice on the Cross?

I pray that you will respond as quickly as the Samaritan woman at the well responded to Jesus and through her witness, her town folks also came to believe in Christ (Jn. 4:1-42).

So: May you come away from the stresses of this wicked world system and be refreshed at the brook of life that flows through Christ Jesus (14); and may God, who is our Shepherd and Provider, feed and refresh you now in Christ.

As He provided the train in the nick of time to get me to the bank with the exact money I had left on me that day; may the Lord meet your needs in accordance with His invitation today, amen!

Shalom