Bartender !?!



            Have you ever had the experience of knowing you’re hungry but you don’t know what you’re hungry for? Or perhaps (like me) you get that angsty feeling of wanting to get out and do something but can’t decide what that something might be. Some of us turn to activity, some to food, some to drugs and some to drink. When Elsa and I go on our walk in the park, we walk around a lake and there are certain places on the path that make it convenient for Elsa to go to the edge of the water and get a drink. We have developed a way of communicating that allows me to know that she needs a bit of refreshment. When we approach one of those easy access places, Elsa will stop on the path and look up at me, a simple move but it tells me what she needs. As she looked up at me this morning I got to thinking, where do I look when I am in need of refreshment? In my early adult years the answer would be the bartender (right John?). This created for me the analogy of God as my bar tender.
            In those days, the bar tender was a person with whom I could converse, gain some counsel, obtain a cool beverage and that would occasionally provide me some liquid courage to step outside my comfort zone. These days, God is my bartender. I look to him for counsel, for refreshment, and especially for courage. Stepping outside our comfort zones is a particular challenge that requires sound counsel and consideration. We must determine if that particular zone is in alignment with God’s word. So bring your questions to him in prayer and seek answers in his word. He provides what we need when we need it, just like a cool refreshing drink after our earthly labors, Jesus is the living water, and it doesn’t get any better than that. To whom will you look?
            John 7: 37, 38 “ On the last and greatest day of the festival, Jesus stood and said in a loud voice, “Let anyone who is thirsty come to me and drink. Whoever believes in me, as Scripture has said, rivers of living water will flow from within them.”
            James 1: 5, 6 “If any of you lacks wisdom, you should ask God, who gives generously to all without finding fault, and it will be given to you. But when you ask, you must believe and not doubt, because the one who doubts is like a wave of the sea, blown and tossed by the wind.”
                                              

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