Posts Tagged ‘Jesus ’

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by:  Staci Stallings

The Scripture that the song “The Well” is taken from is the story of the woman at the well.  Years ago we did a VBS play on this story that forced me to look at it a bit deeper than I had before.

One of the first things I learned was the timing of the story is important.  It says the woman came to the well about noon.  That didn’t seem odd to me when I read it, but it actually is significant.  Normally the women of the village would come to the well in mid-morning, between meals.  They would go as a group, not as individuals.

But here is this woman, coming to the well at noon and no one is with her.

Why?

The timing and the solitary-nature suggests that the woman doesn’t have many, if any friends.  In short, she was avoiding society.  Skirting society to meet her needs, but basically an outcast.  It’s not hard to see why she might have been an outcast.  She’d married five times and was now living with a man who was not her husband.

It’s easy to judge this woman.

It’s harder to look at our own addictive behavior and see where God might be calling us away from that and toward the life-giving water He has for us.

One of the beatitudes speaks to this woman’s core issue:  “Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be satisfied.” (Matthew 5:6)

When you hunger and thirst for the things of this world–food, drink, popularity, relationships, etc. you will never be satisfied.  You will constantly be running after rainbows, and any that you catch will feel empty and not worth it.

Just like this woman, we expect something “out there” to fix “in here.”  And it will not work.

God is telling us to hunger and thirst for HIM, and when you get Him, you will feel satisfied.  You will BE satisfied.  Not for a few minutes, not for an hour, but for forever.  And that’s what you really want, isn’t it?

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