Have you ever had that longing deep within you that was an empty pit but drawing you to be filled. You searched for things that would fill it, but nothing did; you searched for meaning, but nothing seemed to have meaning; you searched for purpose but your searches were always dead ends. If you have let me share this with you: “On the last and most important day of the festival, Jesus stood up and cried out, ‘If anyone is thirsty, he should come to Me and drink! The one who believes in Me, as the Scripture has said, will have streams of living water flow from deep within him.’ He said this about the Spirit. Those who believed in Jesus were going to receive the Spirit, for the Spirit had not yet been received because Jesus had not yet been glorified.” John 7: 37-39 Thirst is like that deep need that comes when we are empty of water, the kind of thirst that pulls from within and can only be quenched by replenishing the body’s need for water. I remember having to drink water from craters left by bombing, when we had run out of water on patrol. So I know what it is like to thirst, and how a cool drink of water satisfies, at least temporarily. But even being filled with water won’t satisfy that deep longing that is buried deep within your soul. After all, we get thirsty again. Deep within us, before we are saved, there is a void, and that void is like the deepest thirst. We are not aware of it at the time, only that something is missing from deep within. Many try to fill this void with things like alcohol, but it doesn’t satisfy. Some try to fill it with sex, but it doesn’t satisfy. Some try to fill it with power, position, and money, but it’s still present after the accumulation of those things. We all go through different roads while we are looking for something that fulfills that deep need within us, even though we don’t know what it is we are looking for. That was my life before Christ. I was doing fine, but I needed something to fill this void deep within, just like a thirst, but unquenchable. I seemed to be on a hopeless search for something that I thought may not exist – a rest for the turbulent need growing within me. I would have never given it a thought to think that I needed Christ, but even then, I tried to fill it with some different religious thinking, but wasn’t satisfied. On the outside, my life looked normal, and I was very careful to not reveal the aching that existed within, for people might think I was abnormal or something like that. But looking back, that night I accepted the truth of Jesus, I saw He was calling me, drawing me, and I didn’t even realize it, for I didn’t want it to be Christianity. But I could no longer deny His existence, and even then was not sure He could fulfill this emptiness inside. But immediately after I cried out in repentance and need, and believed, the void was filled, and I now understood what living water is. I was thirsty in my depths and Jesus filled the thirst. He delivered even when I wasn’t sure it was connected to my deep void. He filled my heart with a new life, and I have been living on “living water” ever since. When Jesus met the Samaritan woman at the well and asked for a drink, a dialogue was started between Jesus and the woman. He would tell her this: “Jesus said, ‘Everyone who drinks from this water will get thirsty again. But whoever drinks from the water that I will give him will never get thirsty again – ever! In fact, the water I will give him will become a well of water springing up within him for eternal life.” John 4:13-14 What is that empty well within you? Have you experienced it? Have you believed in Jesus and received the living water? If you still feel an emptiness inside, Jesus will fill it. The Holy Spirit of God is given, testifying to your soul, that the truth is Jesus, and you will be filled-forever. Pastor Andy
Barnabas Man 