Fountain of Water

John 4:13

"Jesus answered and said to her, "Whoever drinks of this water will thirst again, but whoever drinks of the water that I shall give him will never thirst. But the water that I shall give him will become in him a fountain of water springing up into everlasting life."

I stumbled onto this verse quite by "accident" this morning. Sometimes when I am prompted to look up a verse during my morning Bible Study time, I get interested in it and keep reading. This can mean that sometimes I take twice as long to finish my study as I should, and I also usually take a few interesting detours along the way. But it's lead to some great discoveries.

I used to think that reading the Bible was boring and I could never understand why people would want to spend much time doing it. It is hard for me to even imagine that now. The only thing that gets me to put the Bible down are the demands of my day to day responsibilities. I feel like I can't get enough of it. I know without doubt that it is the work of the Holy Spirit. I thought the verse from John 4 described it so perfectly.

I feel like I have a fountain of water springing up inside of me. It is the greatest feeling I have ever experienced. I can honestly say that I understand the concept of godly jealousy for the first time. I want everyone around me to be filled with fountains of water just like I am. I can't believe that I lived so much of my life without it! What a sad waste of time! But, all of this has come about in me in God's perfect timing.

Not only that, but I know that I would not have been so happy to drink the living water if I had not run around sipping out of other cups for most of my life. Believe me, I know that all those other drinks just leave you thirsty in the end. God graciously allowed me to chase after all the things I thought I needed, only to find that they were all terribly disappointing once I had them. I am so grateful that I learned this lesson relatively early in my life.

This is the way that I experience the Bible now that I am filled with living water. I kept reading past the verse I quoted at the top all the way until the end of John chapter 4. The last story in that chapter deals with Jesus healing the son of a nobleman. The son was deathly ill, and his father sought Jesus out in another town, in order that his son might be healed.

John 4: 49-53

"The nobleman said to Him, "Sir, come down before my child dies!"
Jesus said to him, "Go your way; your son lives." So the man believed the word that Jesus spoke to him, and he went his way. And as he was now going down, his servants met him and told him, saying, "Your son lives!"
Then he inquired of them the hour when he got better. And they said to him, "Yesterday at the seventh hour the fever left him." So the father knew that it was at the same hour in which Jesus said to him, "Your son lives." And he himself believed, and his whole household."

And then I just started crying. I was just overcome by emotion. Jesus met the physical needs of that man, and he met the spiritual needs of that father and his whole household. God is better to us than we ever deserve. But He loves us so much that He does it anyway.