"Everyone who drinks of this water will thirst again; but whoever drinks of the water that I will give him will become in him a well of water springing up to eternal life." John 4: 14
Jesus asked a Samaritan woman for a drink of water. His request led to a conversation between them and to her encounter with the living water that only Jesus can give. She went back to the city a changed woman and told her story.
"From that city many of the Samaritans believed in Him because of the word of the woman who testified, 'He told me all the things I have done.' " John 4:39
The Samaritans were so intrigued by what they heard the woman say about Jesus, and what they saw in her life, that it peaked in them a thirst for more. The living water that poured out of her gave them a craving for a personal taste of what Jesus had offered to her. They called on Jesus to stay with them, and He spent two more days pouring into their lives what they needed to quench their thirst, living water.
"Many more believed because of His word, and they were saying to the woman, 'It is no longer because of what you said that we believe, for we have heard ourselves and know that this One is indeed the Savior of the world."
The New Testament reveals that Jesus stays where He is welcome. He simply moves on when He is not. The Samaritans asked Him to stay. When Jesus acted as if He would go farther, the discouraged couple on the road to Emmaus (Luke 24) urged Him to, "Stay with us." In both cases, Jesus honored their sense of urgency for his Presence. He always will.
My Aunt Isabell had an unusual contraption on her kitchen counter, right next to the sink. I had never seen anything like it. I was seven years old, and on a vacation trip with my family from Dallas, Texas. When I asked what it was, she explained it was a vital part of her household. She and my Uncle Frank lived in a beautiful, old farmhouse, just outside of Bloomsburg, PA. The long-handled green pump provided cold, clear drinking water when it was properly primed. Who knew?
Right next to the pump was a pitcher of water. When I asked if I could have a drink, my aunt did something very unusual. She poured the pitcher of water down the pump neck and started cranking, up and down, the handle connected to the spout on the pump. It seemed to me to be a waste of water, and a lot of work, with very little result for the investment or the effort. Suddenly, I heard a groaning sound, and then water gushed out of the spout. She asked me to grab the pitcher and fill it up. I moved a chair close to the sink, and climbed up on it, and held the pitcher under the waterfall. IT WAS FREEZING COLD. I dropped the pitcher, picked it up, and before I knew it, the water was flowing over the top of my container and running down the sink. There was so much water coming out of the spout, that I couldn't catch it all. Even after she stopped cranking the handle, water kept coming out of the pump.
I had never seen anything like it. I had never felt anything like it, but the best was yet to come. My aunt poured a glass of water from the pitcher into a glass and handed it to me. It was SO cold. It hurt my teeth, when I tried to drink it, and it shot like iced lightning into my head and gave me a brain freeze. It was amazing. The thought of it today still gives me a shiver.
I had just been introduced to the principle of priming the pump. The results were very different from my previous experience with kitchen sinks. I learned it is possible for two sinks to offer two different things. Getting a glass full of lukewarm tap water from my sink in Texas never quenched my thirst, nor did it leave me thirsty for more. The water from both sinks was wet, but that is where the similarities ended. From one flowed tepid tap water, connected to shallow pipes under my house. They were part of a water line that was tapped into a man-made reservoir full of sunbaked, run off water. The other was connected to a deep, fresh water well far below a farmhouse. It had been sand filtered, sheltered from the sun, and hidden from view until my aunt tapped into it. One left me with wet lips, but the other left me refreshed, from my head to my toes.
Priming the pump requires an investment. The water contained in the pitcher, next to the pump, must be poured down the its neck. It looks like a total waste. It is not. It creates a vacuum that draws the water from the well, into the pipes, up the neck and out of the spout. Cranking the handle, without priming the pump, is a waste of energy. It looks productive, but it is merely activity without productivity. Sound like any churches you know? Yeah, me too.
The water Jesus offered the woman at the well was the gift of His Presence and an offer of forgiveness for her sin. The investment she made was a listening ear and an obedient response. The tepid tap water of her life was poured into the promise Jesus made to her. In a flash a new way of life rose up out of her and poured out on all those around her. She couldn't contain all that Jesus had given her. She had to share it with others. They heard what she said, and saw the change in her life, and it made them thirsty for more. Changed lives always do.
The living water Jesus offers is not an experience, or a feeling. It is a relationship and a life of obedience. His living water satisfies an immediate thirst, but it also creates a craving for more and more. The sources of life that once satisfied are rejected and replaced with The Source of life Who will never leave us thirsty again for substitute, man-made solutions.
When we pray, Jesus takes what we pour into Him, and pours into us His Spirit's Presence. His Spirit produces power to repent, and uncontainable, undeniable, and irresistible refreshing influence on those who encounter the overflow of our changed lives. Changed lives change the world, one splash at a time. Prayer will pump you up.
TALK LESS! PRAY MORE!