Do you ever feel worn out or wilted, like you’re thirsting for something more in life? At one time or another, we all get to this place.
Sometimes I feel like one of the pansies in my garden. In the morning they look fresh and vibrant, standing tall. But after several hours with the hot sun beating down, they’re totally wilted and lying on the mulch. Their flowers are limp and their leaves are pale. The amazing thing is, if they get some water, within a couple of hours they’re standing back up and looking fresh again. But if they don’t get water, one more day of hot sun and they’re burnt to a crisp. No amount of water can bring them back.
We’re like flowers.
No matter where we are in our walk of faith––at the beginning, far into the journey, or still wondering whether or not we believe anything––we all feel the weight of the world at times. We all get wilted. We all thirst for something more. We all need renewal. And here’s truth: we can’t water ourselves.
Soul-deep thirsts are quenched only by Living Water.
We pursue a lot of things to satisfy our longings. And we may temporarily be filled. But after a while, we’re limp again. We’re longing for something that goes down into the depths of our heart. We’re longing for something that lasts.
There was a woman who, like a flower, was lying limp in life. She had been married four times and the guy she was living with wasn’t her husband. We don’t know what happened in her past––whether divorce, or death, or abandonment. All we know is that she felt shame and didn’t want to deal with other people. One day she went to the local watering hole and had an encounter with Jesus. Through her brief time with the Savior, her life changed forever. You may have heard this story of “the woman at the well” in John 4:4-30, 39-42 (if not, I’ll put it at the end of this blog).
I’ve lived this story, and I know so many other women who have similar broken and empty places.
For those of us who are thirsty in life, here are 3 Remedies for Spiritual Dehydration gleaned from the woman at the well:
1. Put down the jar of your old life so you’re ready to walk forward in new life. We need to stop carrying the burdens of shame, guilt and bitterness so we have open arms to receive the freedom Jesus has to offer.
2. Fill up with Living Water. Jesus is Living Water. Only He can truly revive us. Only He can fill our soul-deep thirsts. Like a sponge we can soak up His Word. If we let Him permeate every aspect of our lives, even the hidden places, He will fill us with strength, peace, hope and confidence to go on.
3. Run to tell others. This may be letting others know about the changes God has made in our life. It may be seeking a church strongly rooted in Biblical truth (love and grace, not legalism). Telling others may start with beginning to worship God with others. It may be exposing the hidden past, letting go of any anger we harbor, or seeking help to work through hurt places. What’s important is to be in community and know that we’re not walking alone.
We all have times when we feel weary and wilted. We often spend so much time “doing” that we don’t go to the well of Living Water to be refreshed. No matter where you are in your faith, take some time today to stop by the well and talk to Jesus.
“‘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 4:14
May I pray?
Jesus, thank You for meeting us at the well today. Thank You for not only offering us Living Water, but for giving it to us freely. You tell the weary to come to You and find rest. Lord, I pray You will fill those reading this now with Your peace, strength, and confidence. Give them the courage to come to You. Give them the courage to let you fill every aspect of their lives––even the hidden places. And may all of us take a step toward renewal today as we soak up the truth and hope of Your Word. Amen.
Q4U: What is your next step to spiritual rehydration?
John 4:4-30, 39-42
4 Now [Jesus] had to go through Samaria. 5 So he came to a town in Samaria called Sychar, near the plot of ground Jacob had given to his son Joseph. 6 Jacob’s well was there, and Jesus, tired as he was from the journey, sat down by the well. It was about the sixth hour.
7 When a Samaritan woman came to draw water, Jesus said to her, “Will you give me a drink?” 8 (His disciples had gone into the town to buy food.)
9 The Samaritan woman said to him, “You are a Jew and I am a Samaritan woman. How can you ask me for a drink?” (For Jews do not associate with Samaritans.)
10 Jesus answered her, “If you knew the gift of God and who it is that asks you for a drink, you would have asked him and he would have given you living water.”
11 “Sir,” the woman said, “you have nothing to draw with and the well is deep. Where can you get this living water? 12 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?”
13 Jesus answered, “Everyone who drinks this water will be thirsty again, 14 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.”
15 The woman said to him, “Sir, give me this water so that I won’t get thirsty and have to keep coming here to draw water.”
16 He told her, “Go, call your husband and come back.”
17 “I have no husband,” she replied.
Jesus said to her, “You are right when you say you have no husband. 18 The fact is, you have had five husbands, and the man you now have is not your husband. What you have just said is quite true.”
19 “Sir,” the woman said, “I can see that you are a prophet. 20 Our fathers worshiped on this mountain, but you Jews claim that the place where we must worship is in Jerusalem.”
21 Jesus declared, “Believe me, woman, a time is coming when you will worship the Father neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem. 22 You Samaritans worship what you do not know; we worship what we do know, for salvation is from the Jews. 23 Yet a time is coming and has now come when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth, for they are the kind of worshipers the Father seeks. 24 God is spirit, and his worshipers must worship in spirit and in truth.”
25 The woman said, “I know that Messiah” (called Christ) “is coming. When he comes, he will explain everything to us.”
26 Then Jesus declared, “I who speak to you am he.”
27 Just then his disciples returned and were surprised to find him talking with a woman. But no one asked, “What do you want?” or “Why are you talking with her?”
28 Then, leaving her water jar, the woman went back to the town and said to the people, 29 “Come, see a man who told me everything I ever did. Could this be the Christ?” 30 They came out of the town and made their way toward him.
***
39 Many of the Samaritans from that town believed in him because of the woman’s testimony, “He told me everything I ever did.”40 So when the Samaritans came to him, they urged him to stay with them, and he stayed two days. 41 And because of his words many more became believers.
42 They said to the woman, “We no longer believe just because of what you said; now we have heard for ourselves, and we know that this man really is the Savior of the world.”
Do you like surprises? Most of us do––good ones, like flowers, a box of dark chocolates or someone whisking us away to a surprise night out. Those surprises we like. It’s the bad surprises we wish would never spring up. Surprises that inconvenience us. Surprises that cut to the bone because someone said or did something we weren’t expecting. Surprises that jolt us––like death, divorce, betrayal––and we know our world will never be the same again. How can we plan for surprises like that?
