Soul Care: 7 Days of Life-Giving PracticesSample

Day 3: Hydration

My friend Levi Lusko said it best: “In the church we can be guilty of looking for spiritual solutions to physical or emotional problems. You might not have a demon—you might just be dehydrated.”[i]

Amen! While I firmly believe the enemy is always ready to steal, kill, and destroy, I also believe we make ourselves more susceptible to attack when we’re not protecting ourselves. When Peter warns us that the enemy is prowling around like a lion waiting to devour someone, he reminds us that the antidote of that attack is to “be alert and of sober mind” (1 Peter 5:8). We are not powerless to the antics of the enemy—we can protect our spirits by putting on the full armor of God, and we can also protect our bodies by being alert and taking care of ourselves in the best ways we can.

The importance of water is referenced many times throughout Scripture. Water is used as an analogy to point to the Spirit of God. Isaiah 44:3 says, “For I will pour water on the thirsty land, and streams on the dry ground; I will pour out my Spirit on your offspring, and my blessing on your descendants.” Later, in John 7:37-38, Jesus says, “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.”

Water is also used to represent eternal life, as we see in Isaiah 12:3: “With joy you will draw water from the wells of salvation.” It’s used to depict the idea of cleansing, as in Hebrews 10:22: “Having our hearts sprinkled to cleanse us from a guilty conscience and having our bodies washed with pure water…” It’s used to represent God’s Word, as in Ephesians 5:26: “Having cleansed her by the washing of water with the word…” (ESV).

Water also carries practical significance in Scripture. Water cleanses and purifies, and it nourishes our bodies. The Bible often references God taking care of His people by providing them with both food and water. We also see Jesus Himself taking the time to stop for a drink. In John 4:3-8, we see Jesus on a long journey from Judea to Galilea, pausing to rest in Samaria:

[Jesus] left Judea and went back once more to Galilee. Now he had to go through Samaria. So he came to a town in Samaria called Sychar…Jacob’s well was there, and Jesus, tired as he was from the journey, sat down by the well. It was about noon. When a Samaritan woman came to draw water, Jesus said to her, “Will you give me a drink?”

Although I believe there was a much deeper purpose to His interaction with the Samaritan woman—He wanted to introduce her to the true Living Water that was sitting right beside her—I can’t help but consider the humbling reality that if Jesus, who was both fully God and fully man, had human needs to eat and drink, how much more do I? He was tired, so he stopped to rest and specifically asked for a drink. He was thirsty and wanted to refresh His body, all while taking the time to refresh her soul. What a beautiful exchange, and what a poignant illustration of Jesus, being fully human, sharing the same need to hydrate his body that we experience today.

[i] Levi Lusko, foreword to Are You Really OK?, by Debra Fileta (Eugene, OR: Harvest House Publishers, 2021), 10.