Craig Clouston

 God’s Word and the Water Softener

So then faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the word of God.

Romans 10:17 (kjv)

One or two power flashes a month weren’t unusual at the Parsons’ family home. The electric company had explained that they were just switching over, a process that allowed them to do routine maintenance on transformers and outlying power grids.

The flash from two days ago had sent the water softener into error mode again, suspending the softening process. When this occurred, the water returned to its normally hard state within forty-eight hours.

They usually just reset the timing unit and digital clock and then initiated a regeneration cycle, resolving the hardness issue. It really wasn’t much of an inconvenience. After all, they’d done without a softener for the first twenty-six years they’d lived here, filling jugs with drinking water from a spring two miles away. The softener had resolved that issue, relieving them of the constant transporting of eight one-gallon jugs every other day. So a short delay every once in a while didn’t amount to much.

Mr. Parson headed for the basement, reset the unit, and tripped the regeneration button. Three hours later, the pH and iron levels had returned to their normal settings, and the water issues in the Parsons’ household returned to normal.

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It’s amazing how something so simple can have such a negative impact on our lives.

Like the Parsons’ water, our spiritual condition can become hard without continual and proper treatment. And just like the need the water softener was created to resolve, God gave us His Word to condition our lives. It instructs us in daily living and shows us how to handle the issues we face each day.

We need a constant inflow of His life-giving Word. If we miss a single day, we might not notice any impact. But if we continually fail to nourish ourselves by reading God’s Word and fellowshipping with other Christians, we will suffer setbacks and become susceptible and prone to making mistakes.

In order to assure ourselves the strength we need when we need it, we must constantly remain plugged in to the power supply.

Prayer

“Help me discipline myself to read Your Word and stay in constant contact with Your people, Lord. Keep me charged up and ready for action. In Jesus’ Name, amen.”