"Coming to the Well"
The woman said to Him, “Sir, give me this water so that I won’t get thirsty.” John 4:15
A woman comes to Jacob’s famous well near Sychar around noon to draw water. A Samaritan woman, despised by the Jews, she has deeper needs than getting drinking water. She is living in sin. After five husbands, her current lover is not her husband. Does she feel guilty, lonely, and rejected down deep? But she prepares to meet her immediate need for water.
We come to the well often. We are always trying to quench our thirst for physical things – food, shelter, money. At best we temporarily quench our thirst. Like the woman, we have deeper needs. We too have problems with sin, because we have rebelled against God. Do we feel guilty, lonely, and rejected down deep? Yet we continue meeting our immediate need for thirst-quenching.
The woman meets a Stranger at the well, who unexpectedly asks her for a drink and then offers her Living Water that will forever quench her thirst. Not understanding at first, she grows skeptical. Then He exposes her sin and causes her to respect Him as a prophet. She learns that He is the Messiah. He has probed her deeper needs, and now at the well she discovers Him as the Living Water that refreshes her soul. No longer guilty but forgiven, no longer lonely but belonging, no longer rejected but accepted, she rejoices at her new life.
When we come to the well with thirst-quenching in mind, we meet Jesus, who reaches out to us and offers Living Water. Uncomprehending and even skeptical, we probe further. He exposes our secret sin and lays bare our deepest needs. Repentant, we see Him as the Messiah, the One who died for our sins and rose again on the third day. Guilt forgiven, loneliness and rejection replaced by belonging and acceptance, we rejoice in our new life. We continue coming to the well each day and week to meet Jesus.
PRAYER: Lord Jesus, thank You for bringing me to the well of Your salvation and giving me the Living Water which forever quenches my thirst. Amen.
(Devotions from “My Daily Devotion” by Dr. Stephen J. Carter, copyright 1988 CPH. All Rights Reserved. No part of this publication may be printed, reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without prior written permission of Concordia Publishing House. Permission is granted for one-time emailing of this link to a friend. For ordering information, please contact CPH at 800-325-3040 or visit www.cph.org.)
Today's Bible Readings: Isaiah 56-58 Romans 11:1-18
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