Have you experienced this?
You’re walking down the road, with the sun smiling hard on your face, and your throat itches for water. Then you stop at the next shop and buy a bottle of soft drink. You quickly pour it into your mouth, and down your throat it goes.
Your body feels cool immediately. But, shortly, you feel that need rising again. The soft drink you took just moistened your throat but didn’t quench the thirst. You crave for something else. Something that will arrest that thirst. Water. That’s what you need at that moment, right?
Yea.
And that’s how life is. We have longings, desires, thirst, in different areas of our life. We want friendships, love, money, beauty, fame, peace, joy, health, a deeper relationship with God…
We want these needs to be met. But see what a lot of people do. They keep buying and drinking the soft drinks, wines and juices… In form of pursuing just earthly things. And they’ll keep feeling thirsty and dissatisfied… until they drink something. Water!
In our study of the woman at the well, today, we’ll see how Jesus exposed the need for this TRUE WATER to this woman.
The Gift of God
“Jesus answered and said unto her, if thou knewest the gift of God, and who it is that saith to thee, Give me to drink; thou wouldest have asked him, and he would have given thee living water.”
A “gift” is something voluntarily transferred by one person to another without compensation.
So what is this “Gift of God”. John 3:16 tells us that for God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son… Jesus is that Gift. God freely gave Him to you and me – to all mankind. And when you have Jesus, you have access to other gifts God provides.
“He that spared not his own Son, but delivered him up for us all, how shall he not with him also freely give us all things?” (Romans 8:32)
Now the question is: Do you know this Gift of God? Do you know Jesus? Not knowing Him by name or a head knowledge, but knowing Him at heart. What’s your personal relationship with Jesus like? When last did you fellowship with Him – in prayers and study of the Bible?
These posts will help you: Bible Study Prayers
That is how to know Jesus. By surrendering to and fellowshiping with Him always.
But to get these gifts from God, you need to ask, Jesus said to this woman. “We receive not because we ask not…” “Ask and you shall receive, that your joy may be full…” What do you need, dear lady? Ask. Tell God about it – in earnest prayers. Talk to Him like a Father and Friend. He hears and will answer.
And what will you receive when you Ask God to fill that thirst in your heart?
Water. Not temporary water like the one the Samaritan woman went to fetch. But, Living Water. Water that will give you “life”, in the deepest, truest and fullest measure.
Living Water
To understand this Living Water, we need to discuss some questions:
What is Living Water? In John 7:37-38, Jesus when talking to the multitude, offered this same living water when He said:
Living water, running water which, the Hebrew language calls living because [it is] in motion. The grace and comforts of the Spirit are compared to living water because they are the active, quickening principles of spiritual life. Rivers of living water denote both plenty and constancy.
Matthew Henry commentary
Why do we need living water? Because we are thirsty. Everyone. There’s a vacuum in every soul that nothing can fully satisfy except a kind of water that is abundant and constant. Nothing else has those two attributes.
Who offers living water?: Jesus. He says, “If any man (rich, poor, male, female, white, black) thirst, let Him come unto me.”
Where can we fetch His living water?: At the wells of salvation. Isaiah 12:3 “Therefore with joy shall ye draw water out of the wells of salvation.” When you pour out your sins in confession and surrender, at the foot of the cross, your life is emptied to receive this Living Water that Jesus gives. You can’t be filled with this water if your life is filled with sin.
Do you want to have this Gift that always satisfies? You want to be filled with Living Water – that is abundant and constant?
Come to Jesus today. “For He satisfieth the longing soul, and filleth the hungry soul with goodness.”
Now you ask, does it mean I’ll never thirst again? Or if you’re already saved, you might be wondering… “why do I have these longings and desires in my heart?”
Read from Pastor John Piper:
A spring satisfies, not by removing the need for water, but by being there to give you water whenever you get thirsty – again, again and again. So Jesus isn’t saying to her, “if you come to Me, you’ll never have any more longings again” But He’s saying that there will always be in your life the source of supply for those longings to be met. And it will enable you to be satisfied regardless of what circumstances you’re facing in your life.
What a great offer!