Mark 9:41 (NLT)
If anyone gives you even a cup of water because you belong to the Messiah, I tell you the truth, that person will surely be rewarded.
You know I don’t think there is anything better than something cold on a hot summer’s day. Maybe for some, it’s a cone of ice cream or for others a dip in a cold artesian-fed spring. As for me, a simple cup of cool water has always been the cat’s meow.
Growing up in the city as a young person, I found myself each year during the long hot summer, spending some of the “dry spell” days and nights in the middle of bean and cotton fields near Kossuth, Mississippi. Days and nights that were so hot I vividly recall how I oftentimes longed for just an ole tin cup of cool water.
Our scripture today calls for us all to offer to Christians, when they reach out in the hottest and most parched moments of their lives, a cool cup of physical and spiritual water to quench their thirst, regardless of when that time is – in the middle of a divorce or an addiction, with the loss of a job or a loved one, even in the middle of a health crisis or as aging has slowed them down.
And it promises us of a reward when we do so.
My cup of cool water as a Child of God oftentimes came on Sundays when we went to church and sat in a Sunday school room listening to the Word. And it came from my family as we prayed in the evenings and had a cold bottle of Sprite together. You know, those were great times and I believe that all who were present and taught and loved, and refreshed, will or have already received their reward. But what about you?
When, as a Christian, did someone do for you?
And are you also providing for the needs of Christians around you? Are you acting as the hands and arms of God, allowing the Holy Spirit to quench the thirst of another?
If you are, then outstanding! Your reward will come! But if not, then love another, give, and remember, as you step out into the world, there’s nothing more refreshing than a cup of cool water.
Truth Conquers All 