A Dry Well

Recently, I was invited to write a guest post for Devotional Treasurers. Alan Kearns, authors this daily blog that includes: a devotional reading and featured song. I am reposting my guest contribution for readers who may not have seen Alan’s blog. I included the song he chose to compliment this writing. Alan has a real gift with paring a great song selection with each of his devotionals. If music ministers to you in a significant way I would encourage you to check out Alan’s blog.

---

My husband and I lived on an acreage, in the Midwestern region of the US, where our water source was a private well. During a severe dry season, we suddenly had no water. Upon further investigation, we learned the water table for our well had dropped below the level of our pump. The solution was to dig our well deeper and have the pump lowered another 20 ft. For some, water can be a resource easily taken for granted. Until our own personal crisis, I was guilty of that. A few days without water provided a lesson I have not forgotten.

Pure Fresh Water
As we bought and hauled water, I began to think of our need for water. We need water to sustain life—every living thing on Earth needs water to survive, to refresh and revive, and we need water for cleansing.

I also thought about the many scripture references to water. The word water is mentioned over 600 times throughout the Bible. I want to take a look at the “water” Jesus spoke of and the scriptures themselves testify of—Living Water.

Life-Sustaining Water
When speaking to the Samaritan woman at the well, Jesus said to her, “If you knew the gift of God, and who is saying to you, ‘Give me a drink,’ you would ask him, and he would give you living water” (John 4:10, CSB).

Ancient Jews had an autumn festival called the Feast of Tabernacles. During this week-long observance, they gathered to celebrate the completion of harvest. It was a double thanksgiving because it was also a time to remember God’s goodness to their people during the desert wanderings. At this event, Jesus talks about living water. “On the last and most important day of the festival, Jesus stood up and cried out, ‘If anyone is thirsty, let him come to me and drink. The one who believes in me, as the Scripture has said, will have streams of living water flow from deep within him.’ He said this about the Spirit. Those who believed in Jesus were going to receive the Spirit, for the Spirit had not yet been given because Jesus had not yet been glorified” (John 7:37-39, CSB).

Jesus equates water with our salvation and the Holy Spirit in these passages. Salvation and the Holy Spirit are essential to spiritual life, just as water is essential to physical life. Jesus makes an analogy that anyone can understand especially those living in a hot, dry arid climate.

Thirst-Quenching Refreshment
In the same way that water quenches a dry parched mouth, the Spirit of God quenches a thirsty soul seeking fulfillment. Have you ever seen a plant wilt and wither from lack of water and then observe it perk up once the need is met? Similarly, a person without living water will languish and fail to flourish under the pressures of life. But what a joy to witness a soul revived by God’s gift of salvation—through the water of life.

Long before Jesus came, King David proclaims that God is the wellspring of life writing, “They are filled from the abundance of your house. You let them drink from your refreshing stream. For the wellspring of life is with you” (Psalm 36:8-9, CSB). Jesus is a continual source, an ever-fresh supply. The apostle John refers to living water, “…I will freely give to the thirsty from the spring of the water of life” (Revelation 21:6, CSB).

Cleansing Power
Amidst a global pandemic, it’s unlikely there is a person unable to understand the power of water for cleansing. In a letter to early Jewish Christians exhorting Godliness we find this instruction, “Let us draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith, with our hearts sprinkled clean from an evil conscience and our bodies washed in pure water” (Hebrews 10:22, CSB). The author speaks of the spiritual cleansing [forgiveness of sins] that takes place through the shed blood of Jesus.

Lessons from a Dry Well
I have shared the three things the Lord brought to mind from my experience of a dry well. Water is good for: sustaining life, refreshing/reviving, and cleansing physically and spiritually.

Drink daily—drink often—don’t take water for granted. How do we do that spiritually? Read the Bible, daily, often, and don’t take it for granted.

Dear readers, I leave you with these parting thoughts to ponder without further elaboration here. A shallow well be it physical or spiritual can run dry. Shallow wells are prone to contamination. Please get your “water” from a deep unpolluted well. The word of God is deep and pure—taste of its sweetness.

Prayer
Father God, thank You for being the source of living water. I pray with the words of David, “you are my God; I eagerly seek you. I thirst for you; my body faints for you in a land that is dry, desolate, and without water.” Let that yearning be true of me, Lord.

Oh Lord, it is good to know You are a wellspring. Your forgiveness, cleansing, and thirst-quenching power are continual and abundant, lasting for all eternity. Hallelujah! Amen.

Image Northward from Jerusalem. Ahab’s Well, Jezreel from Picryl.com.
Quotation added by Manette Kay.