Don’t fall for the murky water to satisfy your thirst

Jim Honeycutt

Chaplain-Baptist Minister

By the back door he sits and waits on me most mornings. Chico the chihuahua is one of our oldest rescued pack members. We found him years ago on a trip with our grandson to the animal rescue facility in Lockhart. Though he is one of many that we have taken in as our own over the years, he is the most affectionate by far.

Nothing does he find better than being held and loved with long soft strokes as words of encouragement are spoken over him. This glorious dawn, he greets me by pawing on my leg as I walk across the patio towards the dog’s water bowl. I stop for a moment and speak to the cat curled up on one of the lawn chairs. Chico has a plan in mind, and it aggravates him a little that I have been distracted. I know this because he begins to vocalize his desire as he runs around me, doing his best to communicate.

Looking over to his water bowl I see it, the object of his determination, a big fat toad sitting in his water. Picking up the toad, I carefully relocate him to the neighboring yard, far from Chico’s water. Dumping the water out, I painstakingly wipe away the gunk the toad has left behind. As new water fills the bowl, Chico’s tail wags in anticipation.

Soon, all the other dogs are gathered around drinking their fill of fresh clean water. There are days I come out and the toads are not there, but their filth has been left behind. Not only do the toads drag into the water the dirt they burrow in, they also secrete a chemical that makes dogs sick when ingested. It only takes them once drinking toad water to learn it’s sickening. 

How would you react if when you needed a drink of cool water on a hot summer day someone offered you a glass with a big fat dirty toad swimming around? Bet you wouldn’t drink it either. 

It’s natural when a story like this is shared for people to be a little disgusted, for it is quite visual in its telling. And the thought of drinking toad water turns the stomach. Yet when the symbolism of this tale is assigned to our particular spiritual occurrences, the impact is often negated. Not many people would willingly drink a glass of filthy water, yet in their spiritual lives many chug it on back.

More than just a few spiritual teachers these days are passing out glasses of toad water to those dying of thirst. They pass it off under the disguise of revelatory truth. Yet it is the same old lies the enemy has propagated since man’s fall from grace. 

There was a time in the past when God called out His people for discarding the purity of a relationship with Him, to chase after idols. In the book of Jeremiah, as recorded in the Scripture, The Lord God says, “My people have committed two sins: They have forsaken me, the spring of living water, and have dug their own cisterns, broken cisterns that cannot hold water.” In the New Testament, in the account of the woman at the well, Jesus is recorded by John telling her “Everyone who drinks this water will be thirsty again, but whoever drinks the water I give them will never thirst. Indeed, the water I give them will become in them a spring of water welling up to eternal life.”

It is no wonder the toads of the world are drawn to this water. They burrow around in arid places hiding from the sun, and under the cover of darkness desire the coolness of your gifted water. But let me be clear, anything added to the Gospel of Jesus Christ is as a toad fouling the cistern. Yet, when the Truth of the Gospel of Jesus Christ is presented and the toads of this world discarded, pure life giving water springs up within those that accept.

Though for many that have accepted the Salvation of The Redeemer, they struggle with the distractions, that can allow others to put toads in their water. That is why it is so important to filter all things through The Holy word of God, as contained in The Scriptures. A Christ dependent believer need not rely further on what worldly opinions may be, for many a toad has been dropped into an unsuspecting believer’s water. The good news is that the Keeper of our Faith, Jesus Christ, has promised a spring of living water that flows from within.

Is the contaminated spiritual water you are drinking making you sick? Are you tired of the filth and muck left by careless words, jealousy, anger, strife. We have a Caretaker that not only removes the toads, He will clean away the filth left behind… Giving fresh cool life giving water. Then holding you close will speak words of encouragement, fulfilling your deepest desire.