When Your Well Runs Dry

We are creatures, and so it is that we must be fed. When we have food, it can simply seem like part of the framework of life, and we take it for granted. But when we miss a meal, or on a grander scale, if there is a famine, we know acutely what we are missing. As the old saying has it, you don’t miss your water till the well runs dry.

We are accustomed to partake of this meal every week, and we have been doing this for a decade or so. It might be easy for those of you who worship here every week—or those of you who are less than ten years old and have never known anything else—to assume that this is just what we do. It is what we do, but it is not just what we do.

We are being fed and strengthened weekly. Perhaps you have missed a few Sundays because of illness, or perhaps you have had to travel, and you have worshiped with saints who don’t practice weekly communion. All of a sudden, you become aware of something missing. That thing that is missing is what we are being given here.

This is the communion of the saints. It is no good raw—apart from the Word, the sacrament is just bread and wine. Apart from love of the saints, the sacrament is a vain and harmful show. Apart from the mouth of faith, this wine and bread cannot be chewed and swallowed.

Something really happens here, and if you miss it, you miss it. This does not mean that the sovereign God is limited by His gifts, and cannot bless you extraordinarily if you are providentially hindered or prevented from coming. But while there can be compensation for not being able to come, there is no substitute for coming.

So avoid a superstitious dependence. Avoid a cavalier disregard. Avoid an approach that is just doing the drill. Meditate upon Jesus, the author and finisher of your faith.

So come, and welcome, to Jesus Christ.