Dig Your Own Well of Living Water
July 2, 2023 · 2:15:13 · Watch on YouTube ↗
These notes - summary, key points, and highlighted thoughts - were generated by AI from the recording and are not the preacher’s exact words.
Summary
The preacher opens with a picture from the patient work of digging a well: it has to be sunk deep and built from the bottom up, its walls reinforced and tended, or it fills with dirt and gives no water. From there he turns to Isaac in Genesis 26, who first reopened his father Abraham's old wells only to find them disputed and dry, until he finally dug a fresh well of his own and there God met him and blessed him.
The lesson is sobering. We can live for years on the faith and the memories of our fathers - the same church, the same old well - and remain exactly the Christians we have always been while nothing changes. Yet God was called the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob because each of them had his own personal encounter with Him. We must dig down into the Word and into prayer until the living water springs up for ourselves.
At Jacob's well Jesus offered the Samaritan woman living water even though she was far from perfect; all she had to do was ask. People usually begin to seek God not in easy times but in trouble, like Isaac driven from his land or Gideon at the threshing floor, so a season of hardship can be the very best moment to meet Christ with a heart that is finally open to receive Him.
Key Points
- A real well must be dug deep and from the bottom up; shortcuts leave it muddy and dry.
- Reopening your father's old wells is not enough - each believer must dig his own.
- Living on inherited faith and fond memories can leave a Christian stagnant for years.
- God was the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob because each had a personal encounter with Him.
- Go deep into the Word and prayer until living water rises from your own heart.
- You do not have to be perfect to ask Jesus for the living water - you only have to ask.
- Trouble opens the heart, so today is the best day to meet Christ.
Devotional
It is sweet to remember the faith of those who came before us, but their well cannot quench my thirst today. God is waiting to be my God, not only the God of my parents, and that meeting happens when I dig past the surface into His Word and into prayer. I do not have to arrive perfect; like the woman at the well, I only have to ask Him for the living water. Whatever trouble has driven me here, let it open my heart to drink, so that the same water can overflow to everyone around me.
You can drink from your father's well for years and still stay exactly the same Christian.
Dig deep into the Word and prayer until the living water springs up for you yourself.
You do not have to be perfect to ask Jesus for living water; you only have to ask.
