365 Days of the Great Names of God, Day 206: Living Water

Living Water

"When a Samaritan woman came to draw water, Jesus said to her, 'Will you give me a drink?' 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. ) 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, 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.' 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.' The woman said, 'I know that Messiah' (called Christ) 'is coming. When he comes, he will explain everything to us.' Then Jesus declared, 'I, the one speaking to you—I am he.' " (from John 4)

The last time I had to haul water for drinking or cooking or washing up was the last time my daughters and I went camping with my parents. And even then, I just walked down the campground road to the water faucet a few sites away from ours, turned on the spigot, and filled my jug.

The easy accessibility to fresh, clean water most of us enjoy on a daily basis (and, let's face it, take for granted) deprives us of a certain level of understanding of the significance of water as it is used by the Divine Author as a recurring character in His story.

The woman at the well provides us with a telling example of just how significant good water and sources of it were. She has gone to get her supply at an uncomfortable time of day because the risk of running into other people is even more uncomfortable. She just wants to collect her water and get home without interaction or interrogation. Instead, she meets someone—Someone!—and a man at that who interacts with her straight away. She is leery and wants to hide, but at the mention of living water, you can practically sense her jumping up, shedding her reserve, and shouting, "Yes, please! Where is it?!" And into this opening created by basic physical need, the Living Water steps and meets deepest spiritual need.

The Living Water offered to this woman and to all of us, always, is not a stagnant, shallow pool; it is a deep expanse continually refreshed and renewed by a spring of goodness and mercy. But I know in my relationship with God, I often settle for the stagnant. I sing the same songs and fall back on past Bible study lessons and pray rote prayers and recite verses that come easily to mind. To be clear: these are foundations of faith, and when I am on shaky ground, they steady me and set me back on my journey toward whatever is up ahead with God. But I need to build on these foundations. I need to have my parched spiritual ground refreshed by the spring-fed Living Water. I need to sing new songs. I need to study new Scripture (new to me, that is...God's Word is complete and eternal as it is and always has been). I need to add to my Bible verse memory bank. I need to find new ways to worship.

I need to do all this new not for the sake of the doing or the new but because the Living Water is always meeting me at my shallow well and inviting me to come with Him to the pool of His provision. He's inviting you, too, my friends. Draw near, and drink deep.