Living Water

Jesus replied, “If you only knew the gift God has for you and who you are speaking to, you would ask me, and I would give you living water.”

John 4:10

Jesus had been traveling all morning and was tired from the journey. He was at a point where he had to pass through Samaria, so he sat down beside Jacobs’s well. It was around noon. Soon a Samaritan woman came to draw water, and Jesus asked the woman to give him a drink. In this scenario, we would generally expect her to raise the bucket and then hand Jesus a cup. Instead, Jesus turned the tables. He offered to quench the woman’s thirst with living water. He explained to her that if she drank the water he offered, she would never grow thirsty again. It was the water that satisfies the body and nourishes the Spirit. And it flows like a spring welling up to eternal life.

 

From Near to the Brokenhearted.

Steal Away

Then Jesus said, “Let’s go off by ourselves to a quiet place and rest awhile.” He said this because so many people were coming and going that Jesus and his apostles didn’t even have time to eat.

Mark 6:31

Many people like me find ourselves following Jesus’s example of stealing away to a secret place, a quiet place, a safe place where we can reflect on the big picture and think about the promises of our God in times like these. For us, it is a place where we can find peace and restoration. Scripture talks a lot about peace. The prophet Isaiah (26:3) said that God would keep them in perfect peace whose minds stayed on God because they trust him. The prophet Jeremiah talked to God’s people about peace right before he sent them into exile (29:11). God said: “For I know the thoughts that I think toward you, thoughts of peace and not of evil, to give you a future and a hope.” The Apostle Paul (Philippians 4:6-7) talked about the peace of God that passes all understanding to guard our hearts and minds through Christ Jesus. All we have to do is make our requests for peace made known to God in prayer.

From Near to the Brokenhearted Available on Amazon.