Thursday, October 15, 2015

Jacob's Well



UV 1559/10000 Jacob’s Well
O God, thou art my God; early will I seek thee: my soul thirsteth for thee, my flesh longeth for thee in a dry and thirsty land, where no water is;
Psalm 63 v 1

Our lives without the Lord’s grace and mercy is like an arid desert - a place where there is no water and therefore cannot sustain life. But as Jesus told the Samaritan woman at Jacob’s well that with Him is the water of eternal life. Those who drink it will never thirst again. Jesus fulfils the need of the human soul for hope, love, mercy and grace as nothing else in this world can. The Word of God is Jacob’ s well for us where we can find Jesus and hear from Him the words of truth that will give us eternal life. In order to draw and drink from Jacob’s well we need to recognize our need for God. We should crave His mercy and grace as dry land in a period of drought thirsts for water. In order to be well, we need to draw water from “Jacob’s well”- the Word of Jesus. Like a desert traveller rejoices on seeing a well, we need to rejoice and delight in the Word. We often say, I am dying of thirst" meaning that we need to drink something to avoid death. But the Lord wants us to have a living thirst- a thirst for eternal life that will enable us to live fully and to live forever.

Water softens hardened and parched soil. So also the Word penetrates the pores of our souls and softens the soul to receive Jesus as He is the way, the truth and life. Everyone wants to know the way to success, to happiness, to prosperity, to immortality, to blessing, peace, to well being. The world is like a huge desert where there are no permanent paths, no roads, no signboards, no markers. The sands of change are constantly shifting. Jesus points the direction in which we should travel. We find our way to whatever we need through Jesus. In order to find Him, we need to commit to a personal relationship with Him where we invite Him to be our God. We need to seek Him early in life and early every day. The sequence is clear in the uni-verse: first, an invitation to the Lord to be our God, to enter and rule our lives is followed by an intense desire for His Word that reveals His will for our lives.

Our greatest longing in life should be for God. All other things should be secondary. The Lord promises to satisfy our thirst, our longing. His Word is the water that quenches our passions, fills us with wisdom, sows the seed of spiritual fruit, heals, strengthens and encourages, revives and renews, delivers and blesses. Longing for the Lord translates into delighting in the Word more than choice drink. Without the Lord and the Word, the world is but a valley of dry bones as seen by Elijah in his vision. The Word is what enables us to connect different parts of life to make sense of it all. Without the Word, we will become weary or tired and bored with what life has to offer us. With a constant intake of the Word, we will be able to run and not grow tired. To run implies to be enthusiastic or filled with the energy and passion of God. He is the Life-Giver and only when we are connected with Him more and more intimately will we find hope, meaning, purpose and power in this life. Without water, no plant can grow. Without the Lord and His Word in our lives, nothing can grow. With the Lord and His Word occupying the due place in our lives, we grow to our full potential. Jim Rohn wrote that “change is inevitable, growth is intentional.” Growth and fruitfulness is God intended. We only need to align ourselves with God’s design and not fight or resist it.

Prateep V Philip

No comments:

Post a Comment