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The one who believes in Me, as the Scripture said, 

‘From their innermost being will flow rivers of living water.’

~ John 7:38



All natural life on earth needs water to survive. I was vividly reminded of that when I came home from a weekend away and found all the glorious blooms of the houseplant I had been nursing, drooping and laying on my table. Limp and seemingly lifeless. My spirit sagged just like those blooms as I beheld what my carelessness had wrought. 

Our spiritual lives need water too! Not the H2O that nature provides, but the living water! Where do you get that ‘living’ water?

Do you remember the narrative of Jesus meeting the woman at the well? Take a moment to read the account given in the Gospel of John chapter 4, verses 1-30. Go ahead, I’ll wait! In fact, I’m going to read it over again myself!

The Word begins with Jesus and His disciples having walked a long way out of Judea and through Samaria, a region avoided by most Jews. The ancient land had once belonged to Jacob, son of Issac and grandson of Abraham. There was a well built there, Jacob’s well, that for centuries provided water for the nearby townspeople and their livestock.

Jesus is weary from the journey and sits at the well to rest while His disciples go into the town to buy groceries. Before long, a woman comes by to draw water from the well. She comes at an odd time in hopes of solitude since she is an outcast among her people. Jesus greets her and asks her for a drink. Her response is one of surprise as she is not only a Samaritan woman being addressed by a Jew, but a disreputable woman as well. No righteous person would have anything to do with the likes of her! 

Imagine the burdens and weights she must have carried: 5 failed marriages, living in fornication, scorned and reviled by everyone whose path she crossed. Judging from her responses to Jesus, she seems a hardened, hopeless woman. In her hardened state, she responds to Jesus with challenges concerning His ability to follow through and even questions His heritage! She has come to the well to obtain the water she needs for everyday life, and is rejecting the living water she needs for eternal life! Yet Jesus has compassion for her.

Jesus comes at her again from a little different angle; “Everyone who drinks of this well water shall thirst again, but whoever drinks of the water that I shall give them shall never thirst! The water that I shall give them shall become in them a well of water springing up into eternal life!” (John 4:13-14) Misunderstanding Jesus’ reply, the woman responds with a desire to have that kind of water so she won’t get thirsty again and so she won’t have to trek all the way to the well everyday!

Let’s stop and think for a moment here. How often have we asked the Lord to do something for us to make life easier? Or perhaps begged to be delivered from a trial or test of our faith? When the answer doesn’t come soon enough, we get impatient and even take action into our own hands. I know that I have. Even having that well of living water springing up in my soul, I get discouraged sometimes. I worry about the future instead of seeking wisdom from God. I’ve wondered if God can really do something about my situation. 

At different seasons of life I have even challenged the Lord because, just like the woman said to Jesus, “how can you give me this living water, you don’t even have a cup to draw with?”, I don’t see the tools He has to work with to fix my problems. Yet, the Lord, the lover of my soul, does not turn away in disgust, but invites me again to be renewed with His living water.

Eventually, the woman leaves her water pot behind; is that symbolic of leaving what her flesh craves behind as well? She runs back to the town to testify to anyone who will hear that she has met the Christ, the Messiah!! Many believed her and came out of the town to meet Him!

Isn’t that glorious? Thousands of years later, the pattern is the same with the children of God. Trials come, we look to our Father, He hears us, He helps us, He remains with us, He looks for us when we stray, He rescues us. When we testify of His faithfulness toward us we not only edify ourselves, but everyone who hears about it!

The Samaritan woman, despised by all, was not overlooked by God. And neither are you! God bless you as you share something God has done in YOUR life with someone TODAY! Pour out that living water that they may thirst no more and you yourself may be refreshed!

Oh, and my houseplant? About 12 hours after a good watering the blossoms actually lifted themselves off the table and are once again, reaching toward heaven. God is teaching me wisdom through a plant.

With love, your sister, Celeste