Women of the Well… W.O.W
Aren’t we all women at the well, trying to get our thirst quenched by things of this world?
Don’t we all look for things to satisfy us like jobs, money, relationships, or travel?
“If I could just have this one thing… travel to this country, have this relationship, have this job then I’ll be satisfied, then I will be happy”.
What if I told you we have been looking for satisfaction and contentment in all the wrong places this whole time?
It’s pretty incredible because God continues to provide…. I’ve been wanting to write something about my team Women of the Well and sure enough, I had another powerful moment. I decided to watch a sermon from my church in Atlanta, Grace Midtown, and what did I find? The story of the Samaritan Woman at the Well! There seems to be a theme in all our lives about how we live in discontentment. (this post was inspired by this sermon and the women on my team!)
In John 4, it tells us about Jesus’s talk with a Samaritan Woman at the Well. Jesus asks the Samaritan woman, will you give me a drink? She looks at him puzzled and says, you are a Jew and I am a Samaritan woman, how can you ask me for a drink? (Jews do not associate with Samaritans)
Jesus explains, people who drink from this well will continue to be thirsty but if you drink the water I give you, you will never be thirsty again.
Jesus continues and says, Samaritans worship what they do not know but Jews worship what they do know, what they have experienced not just learned.
This woman was one of the first people that Jesus told He was the Messiah and guess what….? She was a woman that slept with multiple men and the man she was currently living with wasn’t her husband either! Jesus knew her story. Jesus knew the men she had slept with, He knew her promiscuous behavior. But Jesus did not condemn her. He did not focus on her sin.
Instead, Jesus told her she has been drinking the wrong water. Jesus knows the deepest desires of our hearts and knows that we are trying to quench our thirst by earthly things that will never fully satisfy and keep us in the cycle of discontentment and in the need for more.
He gives us the choice to keep drinking the water from the well that will continue to make us thirsty or we can choose to drink the water He provides and we will never be thirsty again.
Doesn’t this story sound familiar? “What if we could change our prayers from please Lord, scratch this itch one more time to please Lord go to the source of my discontentment and satisfy me.” “Lord, ADDRESS THE CONDITION OF MY SOUL”
Why do we continue to try the same thing over and over again and expect a different result?
Isn’t that the definition of insanity?
So what if I asked you to try this theory instead of trying to put the weight of your discontentment on your partner or on your job. What if you no longer expected your partner to satisfy your voids or to complete you? That’s a pretty daunting task that we ask someone to do, isn’t it? Complete me, satisfy me. But that’s what our society SCREAMS at us daily. Find that “perfect person” and then you will be happy, and then you will feel worthy and complete.
Why are we feeding these lies to each other? Why are we acting like a relationship or job or trip will be enough to satisfy the deepest desires of our souls? We are on this hamster wheel we call life; this hamster wheel of needing more but never having enough.
Paul writes in Philippians, “I am not saying this because I am in need, for I have learned to be content whatever the circumstances. I know what it is to be in need, and I know what it is to have plenty. I have learned the secret of being content in any and every situation, whether well fed or hungry, whether living in plenty or in want.”
DID YOU HEAR THAT? “I HAVE LEAREND THE SECRET OF BEING CONTENT”
We don’t have to live on a hamster wheel after all? There’s a solution to discontentment?
This doesn’t mean that God is going to continue to give us what we want. Isn’t that the same thing as living in that cycle of needing more? What if that meant that God will give us what we NEED not what we think we want.
God will give us peace, He will fill us up with His truth that He alone is enough. He will bring contentment “in any and every situation, whether well fed or hungry, whether living in plenty or in want.”
This takes me back to a previous blog post I wrote about living with a “poverty mentality.” This mindset that I will never have enough because someone else will always have something more than I do.
Don’t even get me started on the damage that social media has on this “poverty mentality.” (I have experienced firsthand the harm that comparison and the desire to portray this certain image or life via social media has on people)
But what if we could change that mindset from never having enough to being fully satisfied because Jesus is enough. Because we can finally say we experienced the fruitfulness provided to us when you find your satisfaction from the only well that doesn’t leave you thirsty for more like Jesus told the Woman at the well.
He can provide us “kingdom rest which isn’t about laying around and being lazy it is actually about FREEDOM.”
Let’s try to stop putting so much pressure on ourselves, on others, or on things to quench our thirst. Let’s let the deepest desires of our heart be satisfied by our heavenly Father whose love knows no boundaries.
So this is my team, Women of the Well (W.O.W) who can proclaim, “It is well with my soul” because we find our satisfaction and contentment in the one and only, our Abba Father.
The Woman at the well, proclaimed that she met the Messiah and her testimony brought many others to believe in Him. Later they declared, “we no longer believe just because of what you said; now we have heard for ourselves and we know that this man really is the Savior of the world.”
My daily prayer for our team and for us all is that:
We can experience God’s grace over the shame we may feel because of our past. I pray that we can be like the woman at the well and bring others into freedom by proclaiming His name and allow others to experience Jesus’s love firsthand.
God, I pray that you will satisfy us and quench our thirst.
We are all women of the well looking to be fully satisfied and now we have finally found the secret.
Love you all,
Ashley
The message mentioned in the post above was delivered by pastor Chris Moerman at Grace Midtown.
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