It’s the end of the year…the end of a season. You’ve had some victories, and suffered some losses.

They say embrace an attitude of gratitude, and you do believe it. But truth be said, you are exhausted. Exhausted from the fight for survival, exhausted from the battle for victory, exhausted from trying and falling short.

Judges 15:18 Because he was very tired, he cried out to the Lord, “You have given your servant this great victory. Must I now die of thirst and fall into the hands of the circumcised?”

Samson acknowledged the doing of the Lord. He had seen the hand of God, but there was a thirst that was threatening to send him into the hands of his enemies.

And so it is with us, we engage in battle after battle, take hit after hit, and yes, there are moment of victory – but the struggle wears us out. Our bodies, our minds, our spirits are drawn out. We long to find the place of rest.

Exhaustion has a way of making us vulnerable, and threatens to throw us into the hands of the enemies of our soul – depression, alcoholism, wrong company, etc – that’s a cry from the emptiness of our souls.

It takes the inner filling of the soul – for the body, the mind and the spirit – to begin to find strength and rejuvenation, and then propel us to operate at our optimum.

Judges 15:19 Then God opened up the hollow place in Lehi, and water came out of it. When Samson drank, his strength returned and he revived.

God in his divine wisdom provides us with moments of crucial breaks – to give us a breather, to allow us to find rest, to allow us to rejuvenate our souls.

Our part in the equation is, like Samson, to call out His name – and ask Him to pour out His living water.

Psalm 63:1 O God, you are my God, earnestly I seek you; my soul thirsts for you, my body longs for you, in a dry and weary land where there is no water.

And so as we come to the end of this season, as we seek to stop and celebrate…even more important, it will be for us to take a moment and draw from the river of Living Water. To stop and find a quiet moment for Him to fill us up again, to stop and find realignment for His purpose for our lives, to soak in His presence and find inner peace and strength necessary for the next phase of our journey.

As we prepare for the Christmas season, I pray that we will be rejuvenated and refreshed in Him, that we will find joy in the simplicity of His presence, and spread true love and joy that can only overflow from having experienced His refreshing power and glory.

I wish you a beautiful journey as you venture into the beauty and scenery of His presence.

Safari Njema.