A Different Kind of Water

For many of us, I think that it is very easy to put our lives on auto-pilot. We perform our daily routines and become somewhat inoculated to what’s going on in the world around us. Our prayer life wanders. Our thoughts falter. Sin creeps in. Before we know it, we can find ourselves in difficult positions—mostly of our own making.

There is an unnamed woman described in Scripture as the woman from Samaria whom Jesus met at Jacob’s well. Jesus had stopped there for a drink of water at about noon that day. Typically, the well would not be terribly busy in the heat of the day. Most locals would likely use the well in the cool of the morning or the cool of the evening when it wasn’t as uncomfortable hauling water. At this time, no one else was around but Jesus and the woman.

As we see in Scripture, undoubtedly this woman had allowed her life to fall into a rut. She moved from man to man and no longer bothered with divorce and remarriage. She had had many husbands by this point and had lost her way. Even in Samaria, she would have heard about the Law of Moses and the Torah or the Pentateuch. She knew of the God of Abraham and knew that a Messiah was to come. When Jesus made it clear that He knew all about her and that He was the Messiah, her life was changed forever.

Have you allowed your daily routine to lull you into a rut? Have you lost sight of what is to come? Have you allowed yourself to fall into a pattern of sin? Scripture says, “You shall have no other gods before me.” Many of us have allowed other gods to supplant Christ’s top position in our lives. The woman at the well had many husbands. Many of us have sins that we have allowed to creep into our lives and desensitize us from the reality of life change that comes from the living water of Jesus Christ.

When we encounter the God of Abraham and He offers us His living water, it is up to us to accept the free gift. Drinking from His fountain is a heart-changing, mind-changing, soul-changing, life-giving reality that we must willingly accept. Just as Christ willingly paid our debt, we must willingly accept the salvation that He brings. He will never force himself upon us, just as He did not force living water upon the woman at the well. Rather, He said, “The water that I will give him will become in him a spring of water welling up to eternal life.” The woman at the well could have simply brushed off her encounter as a random meeting with another man. But when she realized exactly whom she had encountered, she immediately ran to tell her friends about Jesus.

If you’ve truly experienced the living water of Christ it will change your heart. You will want to know His heart as He already knows yours. Just as the woman at the well-received the living water of Christ and ran to tell others about Him, we must do the same thing. Run to Him. Drink from the fountain of living water and experience the eternal life that is only available in Christ Jesus.

Passage

Questions for Thought

1. What are the sins that need to be purged from your life so that Christ can be placed first in your heart and mind?
2. Have you experienced the life-changing water of Christ? If your life is the same today as it was yesterday, you may want to more closely examine your “friend status.” Is Jesus just another acquaintance or do you seek to know His heart as He knows yours?

Daily Challenge