Jesus answered her, “If you knew the gift of God, and who it is that is saying to you, ‘Give me a drink,’ you would have asked him, and he would have given you living water.” The woman said to him, “Sir, you have no bucket, and the well is deep. Where do you get that living water? Are you greater than our ancestor Jacob, who gave us the well, and with his sons and his flocks drank from it?” Jesus said to her, “Everyone who drinks of this water will be thirsty again, but those who drink of the water that I will give them will never be thirsty. The water that I will give will become in them a spring of water gushing up to eternal life.” The woman said to him, “Sir, give me this water, so that I may never be thirsty or have to keep coming here to draw water.” -John 4:10-15 NRSV
I love the message in this passage about how life is really about what is living inside and gushing out of us. It speaks to me about a life lived with passion and zeal. In another place Jesus spoke about how the abundance of the heart would spill out into our speech. The gospel message is that God comes and fills us with the living water of his Spirit.
Yet so often, like this woman of Samaria, we are more interested in waters that will quench our fleshly thirst. Ignorant of the water that gives us life we search for the experiences of waters that appeal to our earthly senses. In doing so we risk damming up the life of God that lives in our innermost being - the water that is able to satisfy our souls.
Teach us to release control Lord. Cause the living water to flow and touch those whom you love.
... this devotion is part of an ongoing series on the Gospel of John.
What a great word, Bob. Going to copy this and share with my Small Group Sunday as we study The Holy Spirit. Thanks!!!
ReplyDeleteYou are welcome Susan! Thanks for the encouragement.
DeletePassion and zeal sometimes gets me in trouble! Many are offended by my passion and my zeal for our Father's House. Sadly, wherever I go in America I find churches that are the house of men rather than the House of God. Jesus, by His passion and zeal for His Father's house railed on the temple rulers thus: “O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, the one who kills the prophets and stones those [Apostles] who are sent to her! How often I wanted to gather your children together, as a hen gathers her chicks under her wings, but you were not willing! 38 See! YOUR house is left to you desolate; (Matthew 23:37-38 NKJV) In that same passage Jesus refers to the people of God as YOUR CHILDREN rather than the children of God. So it is in America today. It breaks my heart, but...I know that the Lord will soon put an end to this; so I rejoice.
ReplyDeleteIn