John 4:7-14
I am fortunate to be able to live on a piece of land that my wife grew up on that sits on the water’s edge of Shoal Creek. Each morning, we are spoiled with the sounds of birds from woodpeckers to cardinals, even a blue heron and an occasional bald eagle. The land is filled with flowers, some planted and many wild. It is one of the most beautiful locations in this area. Of course, I am a little bias.
As I was looking out at the water, I considered how it was fed. Shoal Creek where I live is fed by Spring River, which is filled with natural springs, the largest being Big Spring which produces over 12 million gallons of water into Spring River a day. Now you can imagine with all that water coming from Spring River what can happen when we get a lot of rain. The water level spills over the banks, and our beautiful land becomes part of the water system. While rare, this is why we built our home ten feet off the ground.
What am I getting at here? Big Spring cannot help but produce its water, whether torrential rain comes or not Big Spring will continue to produce. When we read about the encounter with the woman at the well Jesus say’s something that I don’t know that many of us have truly grasped. He says,
“Everyone who drinks of this water will be thirsty again; but whoever drinks of the water that I will give him shall never be thirsty; but the water that I will give him will become in him a fountain of water springing up to eternal life.” (NASB)
For many of us, we have heard these words of Jesus repeated frequently and most teachers even focus on the first part but not so much the last. We know that Jesus is our salvation and only through Him can our thirst be filled but notice He is not just saying to follow Him is all there is. Jesus is saying to follow Him means that His water or spring becomes our spring. Just like Big Spring can’t help but produce, when we follow Jesus, we are given within us a spring that cannot help but overflow.
The sad thing is so many of us do whatever we can to stop or even slow how much living water is produced from our lives. Of course, we don’t mean to, but life gets busy and we fill our days with work. Our families need us, our jobs need us, our church needs us, and the list goes on and on. Before long we have become so busy that our spring that should not hope to be contained has become more of a trickle.
Jesus promised us a fountain of water springing up. If you find that your spring has slowed its production lately, then pray to Jesus who is generous to remind you of the water that flows from you because of Him. Pray that the Spirit would lead you to the point that others you come in contact with can’t help but get wet because your spring can’t help but produce. All so that more would come to eternal life in Jesus.
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