The water pump in our little travel trailer sometimes loses its prime. When this happens the motor will run but there is still no water.. To get water again it is necessary to prime the pump. Once primed, the water flows freely again.

We may be like the water pump; we too, can lose our prime. When this happens we can run and run but there is still no water. Certain kinds of water pumps will burn out if they are allowed ta continue to run without pumping water. It only takes a small amount of water to prime a pump and then there is plenty of water again. Peter describes a class of wicked people as being ”wells without water.” There were no electrical pumps in Peter’s day, so a well without water would be as useless to him as would a pump that has lost its prime. The difference, however, would be that it may be easier to fix our pump than Peter’s well.

What does it mean, spiritually, if we have lost our prime and have gone dry? It means that at least temporarily we do not feel close to God. Even though He is not far from any of us, there are times when we feel far away from Him. 1t is like the children of Israel in the wilderness when they said, ”Now our soul is dried away: there is nothing at all, beside this manna, before our eyes.” We think how ungrateful they were to complain when they had angel’s food to eat. God has richly blessed us yet it is possible for us to feel ungrateful, to feel dry spiritually. David must have been in this position when he said, ”As for me, my feet were almost gone; my steps had well nigh slipped.” David questioned God when he saw the prosperity of the wicked. He temporarily lost his prime,he went dry, he felt estranged from God. He wondered if it really paid to be good because the wicked seemed to have it so much better than the children of God.

When we feel this way, and we all do at times, we must do something to prime the pump to get the water of life flowing through us again. Jesus makes the gracious offer that ”whosoever will, let him take the water of life freely.” It takes the water of life to prime the pump to get us going again. When David was dry he went into the sanctuary of God and then he understood. He primed his pump, so to speak, and soon he was flowing again. He felt foolish and ignorant that he had been so dry, he felt as a beast. Then he took courage and said, ”My flesh and my heart faileth: but God is the strength of my heart, and my portion for ever. But it is good for me to draw near to God: I have put my trust in the Lord GOD, that I may declare all thy works.”

We can see the change in David’s mood once he got the water of life flowing again. If we feel dry, let us do what David did. Let us prime the pump and get the water of life flowing through us by drawing near to God, by reading His word, by prayer, and by going into the sanctuary of God.

We will never get the answers to our spiritually dry feelings in the world, for it is the world and its evil ways that causes our pumps to lose their prime in the first place. In the natural, the pump pulls the water through it until suddenly there is a pocket of air, and then the prime is lost and the pump no longer draws the water. The air must now be removed from the pipe and replaced with water in order for the pump to once again function properly. The world is constantly trying to replace the water of life that should be flowing through us with air, which is nothing at all. When the air of the world replaces the water of life, our pump ceases to function properly. It doesn’t take very much water to prime a pump. Let, us carefully replace the air of the world with the water of life. Jesus has promised to ”give unto him that is athirst of the fountain of the water of life freely.”