The Source Of The Living Water

John 4:7-14 (NIV):

⁷ When a Samaritan woman came to draw water, Jesus said to her, “Will you give me a drink?”

⁸ (His disciples had gone into the town to buy food.)

⁹ 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.^[a])

¹⁰ 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.”

¹¹ “Sir,” the woman said, “you have nothing to draw with and the well is deep. Where can you get this living water?

¹² Are you greater than our father Jacob, who gave us the well and drank from it himself, as did also his sons and his livestock?”

¹³ Jesus answered, “Everyone who drinks this water will be thirsty again,

¹⁴ 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.”

Jesus has risen indeed! The reason why God reminded me of this scripture is because recently (last week), I was contacted by my husband who initiated the conversation regarding the status of our relationships—it`s called: “In Limbo”. We met and both agreed to resume our marital counseling with the pastor from the neutral Calvary church in our area, but to our dismay, we found out that he was no longer available for counseling sessions for a variety of reasons. Subsequently, we were left off without the willing pastor to take up our case and guide us through the potential reconciliation process.

I will admit, that I had anger and frustration steeping inside, but I let go of all that simply because I knew that since my husband did not display a genuine remorse and repentance, that means God has something else in store. This is not to say that what`s taking place now will not work, but simply put, God does not repeat His design twice, and He does that with the purpose to provide a unique testimony for each one of us in order to make it valuable and useful to reach out others.

One of the scriptures God used to console me with was in Isaiah 66:9 (NKJV):

Shall I bring to the time of birth, and not cause delivery?” says the Lord.“Shall I who cause delivery shut up the womb?” says your God.

The reason why this verse was so vividly clear to me is because being in labor with my daughter for 3 days and not having any strength to push her out in the end, I had to rely on God and pray for Him to give me strength to finish the labor to the end. God miraculously gave me enough strength to make it to the end. This is my God-- in Whom I trust that He finishes off what He started, and He doesn`t allow for the womb to close up at the time of labor to cause the death of the newborn.

God reminded me of these valid points when looking at the Source of the Living Water— our God Jesus Christ:

- Jesus always initiates His relationships with us and makes all available attempts to reach out to our hearts (verse 7). He was the One who spoke to the woman first, and He did that on purpose knowing that she may not feel worthy to speak to the Jew being a Samaritan woman.

I trust that God would initiate the conversation with my husband to lead him to the cross and bring his life to the complete surrender to quench this thirst for the “living water”, which could only be found through the personal relationships with Him.

- God shatters these barriers between our inabilities to reach out to Him and points us to the sole source of access: Jesus Christ. Jesus approached the woman and asked for water showing that He was not afraid to speak to her nor did he abhor her. Our God makes whatever necessary sacrifices in order to reach out to us and save us, and so many times we come up with excuses to blow Him off. This is just a reminder for us to harken to Him because He waits every day for us to seek Him and to search Him.

- Jesus doesn`t care about the heritage and the discrimination that people impose because He cuts through the barriers of ethnicity (verse 9). Our God doesn`t care whether you are a Samaritan, a Jew, or a Gentile- we are all made equal in His sight, and we are all made deserving of His grace, so let us not forget about that (Galatians 3:28).

- Jesus is the only One who is capable to fill our hearts with this “living water” and bring meaning into our lives. We don`t have to search for other places or people, but all we need is to come directly to Him. I don`t have to spend thousands of dollars on worthless counseling that doesn`t bring resolution because only God can fill this void and bring meaning into one`s life. I cannot tell you how much money was wasted on marital counseling only to be pointed to the wrong direction. It is God, and God alone who can build the house:

Unless the Lord builds the house, They labor in vain who build it… (Psalm 127:1 (a) NKJV).

- Jesus always exercises patience and love to explain the meaning of His words in order to give all the ample opportunity to repent and get saved (verses 11-14). The Samaritan woman referred to this well being dug up by their forefather Isaac and Jacob later on, as we read about it back in Genesis 26:18-19 (NKJV):

¹⁸Isaac reopened the wells that had been dug in the time of his father Abraham, which the Philistines had stopped up after Abraham died, and he gave them the same names his father had given them. ¹⁹ Isaac’s servants dug in the valley and discovered a well of fresh water there.

This is the well that the Samaritan woman is referring to; however, it is no coincidence that the well of living water is mentioned back in the Old Testament as a prototype of the upcoming Messiah- Jesus Who is the only One capable to satisfy our thirst with the springs of the “living water” because they could only be found through the personal relationship with Him.

What`s more, I believe this is an important emphasis that the spring water had to be dug up, and it required a good amount of effort and physical strength. The same way in our personal walk with the Lord, it requires an effort and spiritual stamina to dig up these springs of the “living water” which could be only found through Jesus Christ and the daily study of God`s Word diligently.

Jesus is the sole well of the living water, and He is the only one Who can satisfy my thirst and my husband`s, so it`s not the counselors or the pastors, but my One and only Good Shepherd who guides and directs those who come to Him.

God once again reminded me that it`s not the expense of going through the elaborate counseling sessions or trips that would save my marriage, but our drive to know Him personally. This is what I`ve been praying for all along: God-centered family, so I could say that: as for me and my house, we would serve the Lord (Joshua 24:15)!

God already showed me that the request for counseling would be turned down while I was hitting the button “Send” for the email to our neutral pastor because Jesus wants us to find the ultimate source of the “living water” in Him and not in human strength. Only He knows the extent of our circumstances and all the pain, so I give it all up to Him.

I proposed a new way for counseling, and my husband agreed to that. This is the day when God continues to hold everything under His control, so all I need to do is to pray as never before to see my victory to the end. When God closes one door, He is faithful to open another. This is exactly what happened to us: we did get a volunteer pastor from the California (thousands of miles away, yay!) who agreed to provide us with the counseling assignments to work on separate and as a couple. All I can say is that God is in control!

Another consolation was in today`s devotional by Jon Courson where he said:

Paul would write, “work out your own salvation with fear and trembling, for it is God which worketh in you both to will and to do of His good pleasure” (Philippians 2:12–13).

Your salvation is going to be worked out or exercised a little bit differently than the salvation of the person sitting next to you or of the generation that went before you. Oh, we’re all saved by grace through faith in Jesus Christ. But it’s all going to work out a little bit differently in each of us.

This allows me to give freedom to people whose salvation is being worked out a little differently than mine might be. We can give each other lots of space because, within the parameters of grace and faith, God deals with each of us uniquely.

Thank you, Lord, for your word being on time and with purpose. I don`t know what would happen next, but I do know that God would give strength to “deliver” to the end. Jesus is the Provider of the living water, and I thirst for more. I know that God would use this opportunity to create a unique testimony capable to reach out to the "untouchables", and this is something I am grateful for.

I would encourage you to seek God as your sole source of the “living water” because He is the only One who can direct, save, and mend the pain. People could never understand the extent of everything that`s going on in one`s heart, but God knows our hearts, and this is all the more reason for us to come directly to Him without creating extra layer of mediation between us and Him. This is what Jesus suffered for: so we could have this direct access to the Lord. Let us not ignore and trample this opportunity to know Jesus personally.