When God Met My Need
“Lord, I don’t know what is happening. Nothing seems to be going right and I feel so low. Why, Lord?” I prayed one Sunday morning. Without hesitation I felt the Lord say to me, “Don’t drink from the Brook Kidron.”
It wasn’t an audible voice, but more of a thought that formed in my mind. I had no idea what it meant at the time. After church I went home and began to study the Bible to see what God was telling me. The Bible exhorts us to “test the spirits to see what is true”. The best way to do this is by going to God’s Word for confirmation. God never contradicts Himself.
While checking references about the Brook Kidron I found it to be a dry river bed, called a wadi, that only flows during the rainy season. For much of the year it is has very little water in it even to the point of going dry. Twice, people were associated with the Brook Kidron. These occurrences explained what God was saying to me.
The first is found in 2 Samuel 15:23 when King David and his household flee from his son, Absalom, who has become a threat to overthrow the kingdom. It’s a sad day for David and the land of Israel.
And all the country wept with a loud voice, and all the people crossed over. The king himself also crossed over the Brook Kidron, and all the people crossed over toward the way of the wilderness. 2 Samuel 15:23 NKJV
John 18 records Jesus, after the last supper, leading his disciples across the Brook Kidron to the Garden of Gethsemane.
When Jesus had spoken these words, He went out with His disciples over the Brook Kidron, where there was a garden, which He and His disciples entered. John 18:1 NKJV
Jesus was going to a place where He would be in such despair and sadness that He would sweat great drops of blood. What both He and David had in common was they were crossing into a time of trials, testing and sorrow. In fact the word Kidron means “gloomy” in Hebrew.
God was telling me we will have trials in this world, everything isn’t going to always go our way. Life situations will occur that will cause us to cross into dark times. But we aren’t to drink-in this gloomy situation. Don’t wallow in it. As a child of God we are blessed since we have a river flowing with living water to drink from, even in our most desperate times.
