Thursday, February 20, 2014

From dry and thirsty to overflowing

Have you ever really "craved" for something...a craving so intense only, you couldn’t figure out what you were craving? Perhaps it’s a food craving? I must admit I have a bit of a sweet tooth – chocolate is my downfall. Don’t get me anywhere near miniature Reese’s peanut butter cups or Snicker’s, a bag of either one of those and they're not so “miniature” anymore. Maybe it’s not chocolate for you. Maybe you’ve gone through life craving something much worse and in your quest to fill the void you’ve fallen into alcohol or drug addiction, or worse still...an addition to porn or infidelity. Maybe you go from relationship to relationship trying to find that “perfect” someone who fill your deepest longing.
As humans, one of our basic needs is to be loved. Everyone wants to be loved by someone right? In the 4th chapter of John’s gospel, a Samaritan woman comes upon Jesus sitting next to a well. She originally came there with a bucket to draw water but what she discovers will be so much greater than she can ever dare to dream or imagine.
It began when Jesus made first contact in John 4: 8 – 11, 13 – 18 (NIV):
“Will you give me a drink?” He asked.
The 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.)
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.”
“Sir,” the woman said, “you have nothing to draw with and the well is deep. Where can you get this living water?" Jesus answered, “Everyone who drinks this water will be thirsty again [emphasis mine], 14 but whoever drinks the water I give them will never thirst [emphasis mine]. Indeed, the water I give [emphasis mine] them will become in them a spring of water welling up to eternal life.”
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.”
He told her, “Go, call your husband and come back.”
“I have no husband,” she replied.
Jesus said to her, “You are right when you say you have no husband. 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.”
I’m not sure about you but if that were me, tears would have already filled my empty bucket. Prior to that day, this woman had tried to fill the emptiness in her life with relationship after relationship. Little did she know she was standing in front of the One who could fill her life to overflowing with streams of living water. In a matter of minutes she would no longer have to search for “love” that wouldn't last; she’d find unconditional love in the forgiving arms of her Savior. The void in her life filled forever and her inner most being eternally satisfied.  
The Samaritan woman was the only bucket Jesus intended to fill that day. He filled her to with the wellspring of life, overflowing with mercy and grace. He wants to do the same for us too.

We are the bucket!

You are the bucket!

I am the bucket!

Until we realize He is the only ONE who can “satisfy our craving” we will continue to stuff our lives full of things (alcohol, drugs, relationships, etc.) that don’t really eternally matter.

Jesus wants to fill us up with Himself! He wants to fill us with an overflowing stream of eternal water.


Will you come to the well and allow him to fill you?

Whatever you're craving, He is waiting to fill you with so much more.

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