Living Water

 By Alistair Begg

Living Water

Jesus said to her, “Everyone who drinks of this water will be thirsty again, but whoever drinks of the water that I will give him will never be thirsty again. The water that I will give him will become in him a spring of water welling up to eternal life.”

John 4:13-14

When Jesus met the Samaritan woman at the well and asked her for a drink, she assumed that she would be providing what He needed: a literal drink of water. Instead, she discovered that actually she needed what only this stranger was able to provide: a spiritual drink of living water. Jesus helped her to see this need with one simple command: “Go, call your husband, and come here” (John 4:16). He asked her to do what she couldn’t do, because although she had been married five times she was now living with a man who was not her husband. He helped her see how her ongoing search for satisfaction had left her wanting. Famed mathematician and philosopher Blaise Pascal wrote that we have within each of us a God-shaped void. She was no exception. Every one of us digs figurative wells all over the place that will never truly satisfy (Jeremiah 2:13)—our careers, our marriages, our friendships, our families, our wealth, our next vacation, or whatever experiences give us a high. But they all leave us thirsty for more. We will keep digging and drinking until we are confronted by our real need: that our sin needs to be cleansed and forgiven, our desires need to be transformed, and our hearts need to be filled with Jesus. He is the only one able to hold the weight of all our hopes and longings. This woman arrived at the well empty, searching, and desperate. In Christ she met God—the same God who created our inmost being, who knows the words we’ve yet to speak, who can tell us everything we’ve ever done (John 4:19; see also Psalm 139: 4, 13). She brought her empty life to this wonderful source of living water: Christ Himself. She brought her sinful past to the cleansing supply that only Jesus provides. She brought her hopes for the future to the one who knew everything about her and loved her still, enough to quench her thirst forever. On what are you tempted to hang your hopes, other than God? Where do you look for satisfaction, other than to Jesus? He has offered you the drink that will quench your thirst forever and become a spring that can never run dry. He has taken what He doesn’t deserve—the punishment for your sin—so that He can give you what you don’t deserve: salvation, forgiveness, freedom, hope. Draw from this saving well moment by moment, today and every day, and thirst no more.