The only way to become the person God made you to be is to live with the Spirit of God flowing through you like a river of living water.”- John Ortberg
Jesus stood and cried, saying, “If any man thirst, let him come unto me, and drink. He that believeth on me, as the scripture hath said, out of his belly shall flow rivers of living water.”- John 7:37-38 (KJV)
In Chapter 3 (Discover the Flow”) of The Me I Want to Be, John Ortberg states it’s impossible to become the person God created you to be through your own strength. It’s comparable to skiing behind a rowboat. In contrast, Jesus made a staggering promise about this ability to transform human lives in John 7:37-38.
For example, Pastor Ortberg notes, the Greek word for belly is koilia. Thus, we speak of getting colitis as a result of rivers of stress running in our belly. The belly – the deepest place inside you – represents where you get anxious and afraid or feel hollow and empty. However, Jesus targets that very deepest place to produce vitality in you.
Therefore, God’s plan for you = to become the best version of you. Right now, though, two versions of you exist:
- the you God made you to be
- the you that currently exists
As a result, the following question arises: What do you do with the gap between the two versions of you? Our problem, John observes, centers on the fact that we believe we’re able to close the gap through:
- our own ingenuity
- just trying harder
- a more heroic spiritual effort
- pretending – learning how to fake it
Yet, as Pastor Ortberg concludes, “God’s plan is not just for us to be saved by grace — it is for us to live by grace.”
Today’s question: How does the Holy Spirit help you believe so that rivers of living water flow out of your belly? Please share.
Tomorrow’s blog: What spills out of me reveals what’s inside of me”
