Saturday, March 3, 2012

Jesus Offers Living Water

“But sir, you don’t have a rope or a bucket,” she said, “and this is a very deep well. Where would you get this living water?” -- John 4:11

How easy it is to doubt! Oh, we believe Jesus is our Lord and Savior. We’re just not so certain He can or will save us from our mess. Whatever that might be.

Doubt has got to be one of Satan’s most powerful weapons. We look around and we can’t see a way out. We can’t see how Jesus could possibly fix whatever is going on. We forget that He fed thousands with five loaves of bread and two fish.

This woman was a Samaritan, an outcast, someone Jews refused to associate with. She was amazed that this man, this rabbi, this Jesus would speak to her. And then He offered her living water. She didn’t understand. How could it be any better than the water Jacob left for his people?

Jesus explained and still she didn’t understand. How could He offer living water so that she would never be thirsty again? Aren’t we that way? We don’t understand how something can be so we doubt. We try to fix it on our own. We fall into despair. We fail to believe.

But Jesus knows things about us. He knew the Samaritan woman had had five husbands and lived with a man she wasn’t married to. She was amazed. Jesus knows all of our secrets, good and bad. He knows the deep desires of our hearts and the fears that rest within us. He understands.

What are you afraid of today? What are the secret desires of your heart? What do you think is impossible? What are you doubting Jesus for today?

Jesus told the Samaritan woman that He was the Messiah. She wanted to believe. She did believe. Sort of. She left her water jar and went back to the village to tell others of this man she’d just met. People streamed from the village to see this man who might be the Messiah.

Jesus looked out and saw the fields of people, ripe for harvest. People who hungered for living water, for a secure haven, for a promise of forever. People like you and me. We all hunger with a yearning only Jesus can fill. No possessions, no job, no people, can fill that empty spot deep inside. Those things are merely misguided attempts to fill ourselves with living water. But only Jesus can do that.

We doubt what we cannot see. We fear what we cannot understand. Our faith wavers when we look around and see no way out. Faith. Jesus offers us living water and still we hesitate. What are we waiting for? When will we finally believe, understand and trust?