Are You Thirsty?
“Sir,” the woman said, “you have nothing to draw with and the well is deep. Where can you get this living water? Are you greater than our father Jacob, who gave us the well and drank from it himself, as did also his sons and his flocks and herds?”
Jesus answered, “Everyone who drinks this water will be thirsty again, but whoever drinks the water I give him will never thirst. Indeed, the water I give him will become in him a spring of water welling up to eternal life.” (John 4:11–14)
–Oswald Chambers
Why is it that it is often easy for us to argue with Jesus? As His followers, all the promises of Scripture are ours, yet, like this woman at the well, we often question His plan, or His ability, or His compassion, or His love. If we do not see a visible sign of how Jesus will accomplish a promise, we often dismiss it. Our understanding of His ability to achieve a promise is inconsequential, yet unfortunately, we still lean all too often on our own veiled wisdom. Scripture tells us:
Trust in the LORD with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding; in all your ways acknowledge him, and he will make your paths straight. (Proverbs 3:5–6)
In our verses for today, Jesus was speaking figuratively to the woman, while she took Him literally, questioning His ability to retrieve water from such a deep well. Unbeknownst to her, the depth of Jacob’s well was nothing in comparison to the depth of the wells of her own human heart. As we allow Jesus to draw out of our wells our hurt, or disappointment, or need, or desires, or insecurities, or indifference, or whatever else might be in there, He replenishes them with the living water of the precious Holy Spirit. He fills and heals us from within. Indeed, says Jesus, he gives us a spring of water which will take us into eternal life.
Jesus knows that apart living water we are all thirsty. We try to fill our wells with all sorts of things that will never satisfy. But the living water Jesus offers will allow us to never thirst again.
On the last and greatest day of the Feast, Jesus stood and said in a loud voice, “If anyone is thirsty, let him come to me and drink. Whoever believes in me, as the Scripture has said, streams of living water will flow from within him.” By this he meant the Spirit, whom those who believed in him were later to receive. Up to that time the Spirit had not been given, since Jesus had not yet been glorified. (John 7:37–39)
Satisfaction–is there not a wonderful sweetness to that word? Look around at the unsatisfied. We are ever craving beings and yet all the creature comforts of this temporal world are imperfect and not lasting. Look how hard people work to achieve an end to their appetites while all the while singing, “I can’t get no satisfaction.” The world yields but a transient satisfaction. Jesus says, “I am offering to you what will truly satisfy–believe Me!”
The Spirit and the bride say, “Come!” And let him who hears say, “Come!” Whoever is thirsty, let him come; and whoever wishes, let him take the free gift of the water of life. (Revelation 22:17)
Take It to Heart
Come, Thou Fount of every blessing,
Tune my heart to sing Thy grace;
Streams of mercy, never ceasing,
Call for songs of loudest praise.
Teach me some melodious sonnet,
Sung by flaming tongues above.
Praise the mount! I’m fixed upon it,
Mount of Thy redeeming love.
O to grace how great a debtor
Daily I’m constrained to be!
Let Thy goodness, like a fetter,
Bind my wandering heart to Thee.
Prone to wander, Lord, I feel it,
Prone to leave the God I love;
Here’s my heart, O take and seal it,
Seal it for Thy courts above.
(Robert Robinson)
