JOHN 4:13–14 – 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.”
THEME OF THE DAY. THE THIRSTY SOUL’S SATISFACTION. Today’s scripture is the middle portion of the dialogue Jesus had with a Samaritan woman who came to a well to draw water. Being the Master Teacher, Jesus seizes an opportunity to illustrate from physical water a spiritual truth. He does so by offering the greatest invitation a person will ever hear to enjoy the greatest experience a person will ever know – the soul-thrilling experience of God’s Spirit revealing Christ and fulfilling the longing of every human being; inward contentment and heart satisfaction.
The pursuit of inward contentment and heart satisfaction are things all human beings are “wired by creation” to experience. We are born with this innate hunger for happiness, contentment, fulfillment, and satisfaction. Yet, all humans are void of the source to achieve them. In the Garden of Eden, our first parents knew what it was like to be fully satisfied and contented all the time. Why? They were in harmony with the only source of human satisfaction and contentment – the Creator God. But then sin entered the human experience. Disobedience to God brought disharmony with Him, and dissatisfaction and discontent to the human heart. Ever since that sad day, human beings have sought to find satisfaction and contentment in everything under the sun and all efforts have ended and will end in futility. Listen to the wisest man ever to live, King Solomon, as he weighs in on the foolish attempts to find what only God gives – “So I became great and surpassed all who were before me in Jerusalem. Also my wisdom remained with me. And whatever my eyes desired I did not keep from them. I kept my heart from no pleasure, for my heart found pleasure in all my toil, and this was my reward for all my toil. Then I considered all that my hands had done and the toil I had expended in doing it, and behold, all was vanity and a striving after wind, and there was nothing to be gained under the sun” (Ecclesiastes 2:9-11). Solomon tried it all and he would say, “Vanity, vanity, all is vanity” (Ecclesiastes 1:2). Yet, God didn’t leave us to sigh through life echoing Solomon words. We may be restored to the place of heart contentment and soul’s satisfaction. It is through Jesus.
In today’s scripture, He says, “whoever drinks of the water that I will give him (spiritual reality of His Person through His Spirit) will never be thirsty again.” Let the words “never be thirsty again” settle into our hearts. Friends, Jesus satisfies the soul like nothing the world can offer. All the vain attempts to find contentment in the things and people of the world can never say, “you will never thirst again.” This world simply cannot fully satisfy. Oh, it may for a season, but then we will need to find something or someone new. Not so with Jesus. Once we taste of Him, the search for happiness, contentment and satisfaction is over (1 Peter 2:1-3). So, it begs the question . . . are we “drinking” of the world’s stale waters seeking what only Jesus, the Living Water can give? If so, may the Lord open our eyes, like Solomon, to see the folly of such efforts, and then draw us to drink long and deep of the soul-satisfying experience of Jesus through His Word.
PRAYER: “Father, help me to understand that I cannot seek to be satisfied by the world and the Word.”
QUOTE: “God has created us so that the only source of lasting heart contentment is in Himself.”