Desires. We all have them. Some are good, some, not so much. With our desires come attempts at satisfying them. The ways in which we do that vary.
We desire love. Affection. Attention. Comfort. Peace. Safety. Security. Honesty. Finances. Prosperity. Success. Power. Applause. Praise. Recognition. The list can go on.
What do you desire? How do you fill those desires?
When we experience emotional challenges or mental struggles, attempting to meet our needs our way will always leave us emptier. We tend to utilize ways that come from the result of faulty thinking and mixed-up emotions. Wisdom will never follow if that is where our solutions begin.
Alcohol, drugs, sex, relationships, food, television, social media…. what is your go-to?
Some of these things are not necessarily bad. We need food to survive, but when it becomes the avenue to meet our emotional needs, it becomes negative. Social media is not always a bad thing, it can be used for good purposes. But when used as a means of distraction or disassociation this can lead to increased anxiety and feelings of depression.
I am reminded of the story of the woman at the well. Do you know that one? In John chapter 4 we read, “Now when Jesus learned that the Pharisees had heard that Jesus was making and baptizing more disciples than Joh (although Jesus himself did not baptize, only His disciples did), He left Judea and departed again for Galilee. And He had to pass through Samaria. So He came to a town of Samaria called Sychar, near the field that Jacob had given to His son Joseph. Jacob’s well was there, so Jesus, wearied as He was from His journey, was sitting beside the well. It was about the sixth hour.
A woman from Samaria came to draw water. Jesus said to her, “Give me a drink”. (For His disciples had gone away into the city to buy food). The Samaritan woman said to Him, “How is it that you, a Jew, ask for a drink from me, a woman of Samaria?” (For Jews have no dealings with Samaritans.)
Jesus answered her, “If you knew the gift of God, and who it is that is saying to you, ‘give me a drink’, you would have asked Him, and He would have given you living water”. The woman said to Him, “Sir, you have nothing to draw water with, and the well is deep. Where do you get that living water? Are you greater than our father Jacob? He gave us the well and drank from it himself, as did his sons and livestock.”
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.”
The woman said to him, “Sir, give me this water so that I will not be thirsty or have to come here to draw water.” Jesus said to her, “Go, call your husband and come here.” The woman answered him, “I have no husband.” Jesus said to her, “You are right in saying ‘I have no husband’, for you have had five husbands and the one you now have Is not your husband. What you have said is true.”
The woman said to him, “Sir, I perceive that you are a prophet. Our fathers worshiped on this mountain, but you say that in Jerusalem is the place where we ought to worship.” Jesus said to her, Woman, believe me, the hour is coming when neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem will you worship the Father. You worship what you do not know; we worship what we know, for salvation is from the Jews. But the hour is coming, and is now here when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth, for the Father is seeking such people to worship Him. God is spirit and those who worship Him must worship in spirit and truth.
The woman said to him “I know that Messiah is coming (He who is called Christ). When he comes he will tell us all things.” Jesus said to her, “I who speak to you am He.”
Just then the disciples came back. They marveled that He was talking with a woman but no one said “What do you seek”, or, “Why are you talking with her?” So the woman left her water jar and went away into town and said to the people, “Come see the man who told me all that I ever did. Can this be the Christ?”
I can relate to this Samaritan woman…can you? I’ve been a woman who in an attempt to fill my own desires and meet my own needs has found myself with a string of negative decisions I’ve made, overwhelmed with shame so I try to hide from society with masks that ‘I have it together’, and trying to distract myself from facing the truth of my heart only to end up feeling anxious and angry. And then my fragile emotional state and negative thoughts keep me in a cycle that seems never-ending.
I love how Jesus meets this woman though…and how Jesus meets us too. Jesus could have taken any route, yet He chose the route that would lead Him right to this woman. He knew all about her. He knew the decisions she had made. He knew the emotional mess she was feeling that was fueled by shame. He knew what others thought of her. He knew she was trying to do all things her own way. And yet, He sat at the well and waited for her. With eyes of compassion and a heart bursting with love, He met her in the place she was at and ended up giving her what she truly needed for healing….Himself.
Are you a woman at a well today? Are searching for water, searching for fulfillment, searching for peace of mind, searching for joy, searching for love, and finding yourself emptier and emptier?
Look to Jesus. He is right there. He is ready and willing to fill you, giving you ‘living water’, true life, and life more abundantly.