The Woman at the Well
Machelle McDowell
8/19/24
I recently spent some time in Ghana and visited some newly dug bore holes in communities that desperately needed clean water. I loved going out to sit next to the well at the end of the day and watch the ladies and children come to pump water into their empty basins. It was such a blessing to know the community had fresh water and did not have to walk for miles to get it!
They smiled and laughed as they filled their buckets. Then, they would gracefully place them on their heads and joyfully content begin the walk back to their homes. It was such a beautiful picture of how Jesus fills us with his presence.
As I read Isaiah 12:3 this week I was reminded of the people I watched come to the well each day. “With joy, you will draw water from the wells of salvation, and you will say in that day, give thanks to the Lord call upon his name, make known his deeds among the peoples, proclaim that his name is exalted.”
I learned a valuable lesson sitting beside that well. God does not meet our need while we sit idly by. My bucket would remain empty beside that well unless I began to pump water into it. He provides living water for us but we must reach out and draw from Him. After all, it is His water, His well, and even His basin.
Jesus quenches our thirst. He speaks these words in John 4:14- “But whoever drinks the water I give them will never thirst. Indeed, the water I give them will become in them a spring of water welling up to eternal life.”
Humans have a constant hunger/thirst for fulfillment. But, tend to fill their buckets with short-term, provisional, short-lived, and temporary substances that do not fulfill the void God has placed in us for Him.
We live our lives running a race to get from one thing to another in hopes that it will satisfy us, but we find, it never happens!
When we are not living for the purpose that God has created us to live for, we feel incomplete. GotQuestions.org calls it the “God shaped hole.” There is nothing but God himself that will fit in that space in a manner that makes us complete.
When we begin to draw from the well of salvation and fill the hole that only God can fill…. our cups/basins will overflow with praise and thanksgiving. The living water will flow from our lips to the hearts of those stuck in darkness. We experience an unexplained contentment and an ever present need to share it.
We then experience an insatiable thirst for the things of God and not of the world. It is a satisfying thirst. One in which brings joy, peace, and contentment only found through Jesus.
There is no life without water. A person can usually survive about (3) days without water. But, with the living water we are promised eternity!
I love verse one of the old (Hymn, “Fill My Cup, Lord”) this is my testimony:
Like the woman at the well, I was seeking
For things that could not satisfy.
And then I heard my Saviour speaking
“Draw from My well that never shall run dry.”
Fill my cup, Lord;
I lift it up Lord;
Come and quench this thirsting of my soul.
Bread of Heaven, feed me till I want no more.
Fill my cup, fill it up and make me whole.
Maybe you have an insatiable thirst? Maybe, you have tried everything to fill it? Nothing makes you happy or satisfied. Are you tired of dabbling in the things of the world?
Try Jesus