Living Water

What is the meaning of life? What is my purposes in this world? These are the questions that we have been asking our whole life. We need something or someone to give our lives purpose and hope. We want to know why we’re here on this earth and where we came from. We have been searching for this our whole lives, desperate to find something that can give our lives meaning. We thirst for more. Why? Because we were made for more. We were made for a greater purpose; one that is not of this world.

In each of our hearts we have a gaping hole that longs for hope. We spend our lives searching for something that can fill it, looking to things like relationships, success, food, drugs, sex, and so many other things. Then, finally we reach the point where we can no longer go on without something to fill the hole. Just like our physical bodies can only go on without water for a certain length of time, our soul can only survive without hope for a certain amount of time. After searching for year after year for something to clench our thirst, we run out of places to turn to.

I reached this point in my life when I was eleven years old. I had been looking to my strive for success and the approval of others to give me hope, but it was never enough. I eventually fell into depression believing that there was nothing worth living for. It was then, when I had given up on life all together and was about to end it once and for all, that I found true life; Jesus.

Jesus answers our question on where we can find hope in the gospel of John when he “left Judea and returned to Galilee”.

“He had to go through Samaria on the way. Eventually he came to the Samaritan village of Sychar, near the field that Jacob gave to his son Joseph. Jacob’s well was there; and Jesus, tired from the long walk, sat wearily beside the well about noontime. Soon a Samaritan woman came to draw water, and Jesus said to her, ‘Please give me a drink.’ He was alone at the time because his disciples had gone into the village to buy some food.

“The woman was surprised, for Jews refuse to have anything to do with Samaritans. She said to Jesus, ‘You are a Jew, and I am a Samaritan woman Why are you asking me for a drink?’

“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.’

“‘But sir, you don’t have a rope or a bucket,’ she said, ‘and this well is deep. Where would you get this living water? And besides, do you think that you are greater than our ancestor Jacob, who gave us this well? How can you offer better water than he and his sons and animals enjoyed?’

“Jesus replied, ‘Anyone who drinks this water will soon become thirsty again. But those who drink the water I give will never be thirsty again. It becomes a fresh, bubbling spring within them, giving them eternal life,’” ( John 4: 3 - 14).

When Jesus tells the Samaritan woman that he can give her “living water,” he is talking about the hope he gives us. We were not created to live apart from God. We have nowhere to turn to in times of crisis and no one to go to to give our lives purpose without God. The greater purpose we are searching for is our relationship with God that was broken when sin separated us from him, and was restored through what he did on the cross. Only his love can fill the hole in each of our hearts. Just like Jesus said to the woman at the well, there are things in this world that might quench our thirst for a little while, but only his living water can give us the hope and purpose our hearts long for.

If you have any questions or would like to learn more about The C.A.N Sisters’ Ministry, leave a comment below, check out our website, or email us at cansistersministry@gamil.com.