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

Research shows us that people who drink at least 8 glasses of water a day are healthier than those who do not (factoring of course for things like diet and exercise and genetic tendencies). Water makes up about 60% of the adult body which is why the average person cannot live more than 10 days without it.

Just as Jesus instructed the woman at the well, we need to drink water every day to prevent thirst.

On the other hand, the spiritual water that Christ provides needs only to be accepted once to quench our eternal thirst. It provides us with a living wellspring to draw upon so that we need search no more. That living wellspring will never run dry, never forsake us, and never leave us.

Yet, times, we have been known to wander from the Source of living water or perform actions that clog the line connecting us to the Source and suddenly, we find ourselves in need, thirsty, spiritually dehydrated.

Consider this: If you take a bucket of water from a well and you carry it far away and set it down, then eventually the water in that bucket will evaporate, freeze, become contaminated, or get spilt. The well itself runs deep and is perfectly fine, but three or four days later, the quantity and quality of water in the bucket you carried elsewhere will be different and most likely lesser than before.

This is what happens when we wander away from or clog the lines to the eternal wellspring that God grants to those who believe on Him. We stop going to church figuring that the wellspring is eternal so we’ll be fine, but the farther we get from the well, the thirstier we feel. The same thing happens when we wander away from studying the Bible or engaging in Christian fellowship and when we allow sin to clog the line between us and the living water.

No matter how far we wander or how clogged up we become with sin, still have eternal life because Christ promises us that we will never thirst again, but our earthly life begins to not go so great and our spirit develops a sorrowful longing as we distance ourselves farther from the source of living water.

Brothers and Sisters, sometimes we decide to try to quench that sorrowful longing with something or someone else: shopping, food, smoking, drinking, new car, new job, new friends, new flirtations or romances.

But hear this part LOUD and CLEAR – returning to the well, to the Source of living water is the ONLY step that will quench that longing (John 14:6; John 7:37-39).

Anything or anyone other than God will leave you thirstier than you were before and probably the worse for wear (1 John 2:17; Matthew 6:19).

Sweet friends who have not drank from the living water, who do not know Jesus Christ as their Lord and Savior, the same is true for you. You can search high and low all the days of your life and try every philosophy, every pill, every trending thing, and still not be satisfied, still continue to thirst.

BUT God, God offers you freely living water from a wellspring that never runs dry. Jesus is there waiting, cup in hand for you.

Brothers and Sisters, that same wellspring that you wandered from is waiting for you too.

Whether this is your first time drinking from the well or a return trip to reconnect to the Source after time spent wandering away. Whether you have to push through a wall of sin or simply kick some debris aside, He is there waiting for you to come to Him.

Once you’re connected to the Source, keep the lines open between you and the spring: study His word, worship His name, care for His people, grow in the likeness of Him.

Come to Jesus Christ and thirst no more!

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