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A Thirsty Soul

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I have had the wonderful privilege of watching my dear friend, Juliet Sharrow, blossom under the loving hand of the God who pursues her. Today she shares a bit of her story. May you also discover the beauty of God’s intervening love.

My Thirsty Soul by Juliet Sharrow

“My people have committed two sins: They have forsaken me, the spring of living water, and have dug their own cisterns, broken cisterns that cannot hold water. Jeremiah 2:13

01419676c13f3393ae901dec23ae13cff24f8cb52d-1I have been the woman at the well.

I’d wager you have too. We’ve all had times, whether we want to admit it or not, when we’ve felt like her . . . unworthy, like an outcast, wearing our shame and guilt like a scarlet letter. In those times we try to avoid people, carefully evading their judgment and “knowing glances”. Yet all the while we’re dying inside, our parched souls crying out for satisfaction but finding none.

My quest to satisfy my thirsty soul began at a young age. My Grandparents wanted my mother to have an abortion. I was an unplanned child to an 18-year-old unwed mother. And my young father was not ready for the responsibilities of a wife and child. From these beginnings came a little girl who felt unloved and rejected from as far back as she can remember.

I grew up without my father; I never even knew his name. I was raised by a wounded mother who was unable to love and a stepfather who was cold and abusive. The words “I love you” were never spoken in our home and hugs were rare. My stepfather only spoke to me when I did something wrong. I was not praised or told I did anything right, and I was never told I was beautiful, like every girl dreams of hearing from her daddy.

I was an only child, so everything that happened was somehow my fault. With no one else to blame, my stepfather took all his frustrations out on me. And my mother was too weak, too broken herself to protect me. I learned at an early age that love has to be earned and that love can be taken back at a moment’s notice. This left me hurting and searching. Searching for love anywhere I could get it.

And so began my unquenchable thirst.

My childhood environment taught me this: I was not good enough, was not accepted, and was not loved. I knew there must be something wrong with me that no one wanted me and no one loved me. I believed I was ugly and unlovable, that no one could EVER love me.

From a young age I went to church with anyone who would take me, mostly to get out of the house and away from my parents. And when I was old enough to understand about hell, I decided I didn’t want to go there, so I prayed the sinner’s prayer.

But I didn’t understand what accepting Jesus as my Savior really meant. Once again, I saw rules that had to be followed, and punishment for those that sinned. I thought God was waiting to punish me every time I did something wrong. I never felt love from God and I certainly never understood how to love Him back. He was too distant, and I was too afraid of failing Him along with everyone else. It never occurred to me that this God might be able to satisfy my thirst.

I thought if He really loved me He would have given me different parents, or He would have sent my real dad in to rescue me. Have you ever wished you could live someone else’s life? But my real father never came, and things at home only got worse. I just knew there was no way this perfect God could really love me. I was unlovable. And so my insatiable thirst only grew.

Nothing I did filled the void inside, nothing made me feel loved and accepted. I hated myself so much, and my relationship with my stepfather had gotten so bad, that as a teenager, every day I wished I was dead. I would sit on my bed and tell my mom how much I wanted to die. It consumed my thoughts. I saw myself as a failure and thought my life was not worth living, but I never got up the nerve to commit suicide.

Not until I was 21. By this time, my life had spiraled into such a deep pit, I saw no way out.

At first my spiral downward had been exciting, even intoxicating. I tried to satisfy my thirsty soul with all manner of evils, but the more I gave myself away, the thirstier I got, and I died a little more inside each day. I couldn’t live with the shame and guilt I was carrying around, couldn’t live with the horrible choices I had made. I could not live with myself.

I knew in my heart that no one would miss me. I believed I was doing everyone a favor, and this would finally make the pain go away. So I took a bunch of pills and went to sleep knowing it was finally over.

But God had other plans for me. He sent paramedics to break down my door and save me from myself. As I lay there in and out of consciousness, I heard singing! Just one voice, a man, so tender and sweet, singing, “I will always love you, I will always love you, I will always love you, yes I will!”

I experienced the blessing of Zephaniah 3:17 that day,

“The LORD your God is with you, he is mighty to save. He will take great delight in you, He will quiet you with his love, he will rejoice over you with singing.”

God wasn’t so distant after all. In fact, I discovered He goes out of His way to meet us where we are. Just like Jesus went to Samaria to rescue a woman at a well, He pursues each one of us. And He came to me in my darkest hour. As I lay dying, He sang His love over me and carried me back to the land of the living.

I should have died that day. The doctors did not understand how I made it, but I did. A loving God had intersected my path to show me that I was worth loving. Unfortunately, I wasn’t yet ready to believe Him.

Visit us next week to read the rest of Juliet’s story!

The Marks of Spiritual Thirst

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. . . my people have committed two evils: they have forsaken me, the fountain of living waters, and hewed out cisterns for themselves, broken cisterns that can hold no water. Jeremiah 2:13

The people of God are parched. Dry. Thirsty.

But there’s an even bigger problem. I fear we don’t recognize the severity of our condition. The desert has become so familiar we’ve stopped believing God for the Promised Land.

So it sits, just beyond the horizon. The river of life flows within it, but we don’t drink. We’ve stopped believing it exists. Instead, we just keep trying to draw from the same old broken cisterns.

A Samaritan woman experienced a similar thirst. Seeking water from an earthly well, she didn’t recognize her true need. Jesus pursued her, going out of His way to awaken her to her lack.

Jesus answered her, “If you knew the gift of God, and who it is that is saying to you, ‘Give me a drink,’ you would have asked him, and he would have given you living water.” John 4:10

Her response reveals the first mark of spiritual thirst.

The woman said to him, “Sir, you have nothing to draw water with, and the well is deep. Where do you get that living water? Are you greater than our father Jacob? He gave us the well and drank from it himself, as did his sons and his livestock.” John 4:11-12

Spiritually thirsty people don’t believe Jesus can do the impossible.

Jesus offered her living water, and she didn’t see how He could possibly provide it. Her faith had become limited to what she could see and rationalize with her mind.

What about you, dear one? Do you believe Jesus can do the impossible in your life? Or have you given up hope that your circumstances could ever change?

You see, that’s what spiritual thirst does, beloved. It causes us to lose hope and puts limits around our faith.

Her lack of faith didn’t deter Jesus. He just kept speaking truth to her.

Jesus said to her, “Everyone who drinks of this water will be thirsty again, but whoever drinks of the water that I will give him will never be thirsty again. The water that I will give him will become in him a spring of water welling up to eternal life.” John 4:13-14

His words reveal the second mark of spiritual thirst.

Spiritually thirsty people have no overflow to offer others.

When God’s people drink from His flow of living water, it becomes a spring of life within us. That spring will well up and flow out, offering life to those around us.

When we don’t drink from His presence, our spring can’t flow. We remain parched ourselves, so we have nothing to give. When we try to give, our giving will lack joy and will not result in life.

Is life welling up inside you, beloved? Does it flow out? If not, it’s time to drink from the fountain. Run to Jesus and declare your thirst.

For I will pour water on the thirsty land, and streams on the dry ground; I will pour my Spirit upon your offspring, and my blessing on your descendants. Isaiah 44:3

He who promised is faithful, dear one. He longs to pour out life. You and I just need to stop seeking it elsewhere and ask. The woman at the well finally did.

The woman said to him, “Sir, give me this water, so that I will not be thirsty or have to come here to draw water.” John 4:15

But before Jesus could provide it, she had to acknowledge the broken cistern she had been running to in an attempt to quench her thirst.

 Jesus said to her, “Go, call your husband, and come here.” The woman answered him, “I have no husband.” Jesus said to her, “You are right in saying, ‘I have no husband’; for you have had five husbands, and the one you now have is not your husband. What you have said is true.” John 4:16-18

Spiritually thirsty people are prone to sexual sin.

An emptiness looms deep within, driving us toward relationships with a desperate need to fill it. God created that place to house His Spirit, the source of living water. When we don’t drink from Him to fill that place, we will invariably go elsewhere.

But instead of quenching that thirst, dear one, our relationships will make us all the more aware of our lack. Instead of filling us, they will empty us. And we will blame the people in our lives for their inability to meet our need, moving from one to the next in search of satisfaction.

But we won’t find it. Because in reality, the problem lies within us. The people in our lives are incapable of filling our empty place.

You see, they—like us—are broken cisterns that can’t hold water (Jeremiah 2:13).

Beloved, only Jesus can satisfy. Perhaps it’s time we believed Him and ran to Him to quench our thirst.

A Thirsty Soul

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We have spent the last two weeks exploring Jesus’ encounter with the woman at the well (John 4) and celebrating our very personal God. We cannot step into His blessings and promises without knowing Him. Yet our God repeatedly intervenes along life’s paths to make Himself known, watching to see if we will respond in faith to the encounter. Today, Juliet Sharrow shares her story of pain and God’s intervening love. May her story move you to trust and follow the One who gives life.

A Thirsty Soul by Juliet Sharrow

Juliet Sharrow

“My people have committed two sins: They have forsaken me, the spring of living water, and have dug their own cisterns, broken cisterns that cannot hold water.”  Jeremiah 2:13

I have been the woman at the well.  I’d wager you have too. We’ve all had times, whether we want to admit it or not, when we’ve felt like her . . . unworthy, like an outcast, wearing our shame and guilt like a scarlet letter. In those times we try to avoid people, carefully evading their judgment and “knowing glances”.  Yet all the while we’re dying inside, our parched souls crying out for satisfaction but finding none.

My quest to satisfy my thirsty soul began at a young age. My Grandparents wanted my mother to have an abortion.  I was an unplanned child to an 18-year-old unwed mother.  And my young father was not ready for the responsibilities of a wife and child.  From these beginnings came a little girl who felt unloved and rejected from as far back as she can remember.

I grew up without my father; I never even knew his name. I was raised by a wounded mother who was unable to love and a stepfather who was cold and abusive. The words “I love you” were never spoken in our home and hugs were rare.  My stepfather only spoke to me when I did something wrong.  I was not praised or told I did anything right, and I was never told I was beautiful, like every girl dreams of hearing from her daddy.

I was an only child, so everything that happened was somehow my fault. With no one else to blame, my stepfather took all his frustrations out on me. And my mother was too weak, too broken herself, to protect me. I learned at an early age that love has to be earned and that love can be taken back at a moment’s notice. This left me hurting and searching. Searching for love anywhere I could get it. And so began my unquenchable thirst.

My childhood environment taught me this: I was not good enough, was not accepted, and was not loved.  I knew there must be something wrong with me that no one wanted me and no one loved me. I believed I was ugly and unlovable, that no one could EVER love me.

From a young age I went to church with anyone who would take me, mostly to get out of the house and away from my parents.  And when I was old enough to understand about hell, I decided I didn’t want to go there, so I prayed the sinner’s prayer.

But I didn’t understand what accepting Jesus as my Savior really meant.  Once again, I saw rules that had to be followed, and punishment for those that sinned.  I thought God was waiting to punish me every time I did something wrong.  I never felt love from God and I certainly never understood how to love Him back.  He was too distant, and I was too afraid of failing Him along with everyone else.  It never occurred to me that this God might be able to satisfy my thirst.

I thought if He really loved me He would have given me different parents, or He would have sent my real dad in to rescue me.  Have you ever wished you could live someone else’s life? But my real father never came, and things at home only got worse.  I just knew there was no way this perfect God could really love me. I was unlovable. And so my insatiable thirst only grew.

Nothing I did filled the void inside, nothing made me feel loved and accepted.  I hated myself so much, and my relationship with my stepfather had gotten so bad, that as a teenager, every day I wished I was dead.  I would sit on my bed and tell my mom how much I wanted to die.  It consumed my thoughts.  I saw myself as a failure and thought my life was not worth living, but I never got up the nerve to commit suicide.

Not until I was 21.  By this time, my life had spiraled into such a deep pit, I saw no way out.

At first my spiral downward had been exciting, even intoxicating.  I tried to satisfy my thirsty soul with all manner of evils, but the more I gave myself away, the thirstier I got, and I died a little more inside each day. I couldn’t live with the shame and guilt I was carrying around, couldn’t live with the horrible choices I had made.  I could not live with myself.

I knew in my heart that no one would miss me. I believed I was doing everyone a favor, and this would finally make the pain go away. So I took a bunch of pills and went to sleep knowing it was finally over.

But God had other plans for me. He sent paramedics to break down my door and save me from myself. As I lay there in and out of consciousness, I heard singing! Just one voice, a man, so tender and sweet, singing, “I will always love you, I will always love you, I will always love you, yes I will!”

I experienced the blessing of Zephaniah 3:17 that day,

“The LORD your God is with you, he is mighty to save. He will take great delight in you, He will quiet you with his love, he will rejoice over you with singing.”

God wasn’t so distant after all. In fact, I discovered He goes out of His way to meet us where we are. Just like Jesus went to Samaria to rescue a woman at a well, He pursues each one of us. And He came to me in my darkest hour. As I lay dying, He sang His love over me and carried me back to the land of the living.

I should have died that day. The doctors did not understand how I made it, but I did. A loving God had intersected my path to show me that I was worth loving. Unfortunately, I wasn’t yet ready to believe Him.

Visit us next week to read the rest of Juliet’s story!

Jesus Gets Personal

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“Now this is eternal life: that they may know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom you have sent.” John 17:3

I grew up in church and almost missed knowing Jesus. Yet Scripture reveals and important truth associated with our salvation. It begins with a personal encounter with the Living God. Beloved, do you know the One you claim to have believed?

In the fourth chapter of John, we find the story of a broken woman who came face to face with her Savior.  Bearing the shame of both past and present sin, she would walk to the public well for her water in the heat of the day, avoiding the humiliation of accusing eyes and snickering tones.  Somehow the sun’s scorching rays can feel less damaging than society’s judgment. This particular day, however, she did not make it to the well unseen. She discovered someone waiting there, a stranger in need of a drink.  That stranger was Jesus.

He initiated conversation with her, “Will you give me a drink?” (John 4:7)  She could not conceal her surprise that He would even speak to her.  Recognizing He was a Jew and knowing the animosity that existed between their people, she would have expected Him to ignore a Samaritan, much less a Samaritan woman.  Yet this stranger didn’t ignore her. He actually seemed interested in knowing her story.  He even mentioned a gift.

“If you knew the gift of God and who it is that asks you for a drink, you would have asked him and he would have given you living water.” John 4:10

Then He got personal.

He told her, “Go, call your husband and come back.” Verse 16

Something about Him made her open up just a bit. To her astonishment she discovered He already knew her completely!

  “I have no husband,” she replied.  Jesus said to her, “You are right when you say you have no husband. The fact is, you have had five husbands, and the man you now have is not your husband.  What you have just said is quite true.” John 4:17-18

She had admitted a tiny piece of her shame: she was unmarried. But in the light of His presence, the true depth of her sin was revealed.  There she stood, fully exposed, probably bracing herself for judgment, yet it never came. Instead she felt the touch of something altogether different. Grace began to infiltrate her senses as she recognized that this revelation of her sordid past came free of its usual weighty shame.  A light began to dawn in her heart, and she realized that this One who had sought her out was something special. As their conversation turned toward the Messiah who had been foretold, Jesus revealed Himself fully to her with the words,

“I who speak to you am he.” John 4:26

Face to face with her Messiah, she found herself confronted by her personal truth, and the collision of grace and truth found only in Jesus Christ produced in her the only response that could save her:  she believed.

Do you think Jesus will be any less personal with us?  Just as He divinely appointed a meeting between Himself and a broken woman thirsting for something she couldn’t define, He sits in wait for us to interact with Him at appointed stops along the pathways of our own lives.  He will stir up questions in the depths of our hearts to turn our attention toward Him and move us to respond to Him, but very often either the shame we carry or simply the busyness of our lives keep us from turning our gaze to see who it is that beckons us to answer Him.  As our Samaritan woman found, responding to Jesus’ personal invitation reveals truth that can set us free (John 8:32)!  What happened next?

 “Then, leaving her water jar, the woman went back to the town and said to the people, Come, see a man who told me everything I ever did.  Could this be the Christ?” John 4:28-29

Remarkable, isn’t it, that this woman, who bore so much shame she went out of her way to avoid the people of the town, felt the touch of Jesus’ grace so powerfully that she ran shamelessly to the very people who scorned her?  That’s what an authentic encounter with Christ produces.  Liberation and transformation!  Grace frees and heals, and we always come away changed.  But her salvation didn’t end with her own story.  Many in the town also believed because of her testimony as she became a witness for Jesus, inviting them to come and see Him for themselves.  And…

 30 They came out of the town and made their way toward him.

…39 Many of the Samaritans from that town believed in him because of the woman’s testimony, “He told me everything I ever did.”  40 So when the Samaritans came to him, they urged him to stay with them, and he stayed two days.  41 And because of his words many more became believers.

 42They said to the woman, “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.”   (John 4:30,39- 42)

Let’s not miss a vital element to our story found in verse 30:  they came out of the town and made their way toward him.   Notice that those who believed had to approach Jesus themselves.  It was not enough for the people of her town to hear her testimony of Jesus.  Hearing was the catalyst that propelled them on their own journey toward the Messiah, but their salvation didn’t come through her testimony.  It came when, struck by the power of her testimony, they made the journey toward Jesus themselves.  They got personal with Him, and when they did, He revealed Himself to them as well, and many moved from the realm of doubt to certainty, “…now we have heard for ourselves, and we know that this man really is the Savior of the world.”

Have you had your encounter with Jesus, dear one? Are you basing your faith on someone else’s testimony, or have you allowed Him to give you your own? Maybe you’ve heard things about Jesus that have produced a stirring in your heart to believe. Run to meet Him, dear one, that your faith may be complete. He waits to offer you a drink.

Living Water Flows

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Jesus answered her, “If you knew the gift of God and who it is that asks you for a drink, you would have asked him and he would have given you living water.”  John 4:10

I love the story of the woman at the well. I can’t help but relate to her experience. Like her, I spent years avoiding people. It just seemed safer keeping to myself. And like that broken woman, caught up in sin and existing in isolation, Jesus met me in the midst of the mundane to offer me living water. With a hopeful heart, I drank.

Soon that water began to bear the fruit of life. I discovered true forgiveness, healing replaced brokenness, and love drew me out of my solitude. The joy of restoration kindled a passion in me for God’s Word that remains insatiable. And while I remain faithful to feast on His Word, the living water within me continually produces new life. Oh, how I love Jesus!

Do you know the gift of God Jesus speaks of in John 4:10? Does living water flow through you? 

If you have put your faith in Jesus and received Him as your Lord and Savior, He has given you His Spirit. But Jesus didn’t give you the Holy Spirit to settle into your soul like a puddle. He is not just a possession given to seal you for salvation. He entered your heart to flood your entire being with His presence. He means to flow through you in a way that makes people take notice. And as He flows, He produces life.

. . . Jesus stood and said in a loud voice, “If anyone is thirsty, let him come to me and drink. Whoever believes in me, as the Scripture has said, streams of living water will flow from within him.” By this he meant the Spirit, whom those who believed in him were later to receive. John 7:37-39

How does Jesus describe the Spirit?  He is like streams of living water that flow from within.

Take a moment to picture a flowing stream. It differs greatly from still water. A stream bubbles and swells with life, changing the landscape as it flows. Have you ever stumbled upon a stagnant pond and found junk collecting on the surface of the water? Not so with flowing water. Moving water carries debris along and eventually washes it away.

Has the Holy Spirit left His tangible mark on your life, dear one? Can you see evidence of His movement? You’re meant to. The Holy Spirit within you initiates change. His movement will stir up waste and debris until He clears it right out of you. Then He’ll plant the fruit of abundant life in its place.

Beloved, if you want to activate the flow of the Spirit within you, you’re going to have to feed the stream.

Psalm 1:2-3 teaches,

But his delight is in the law of the Lord, and on his law he meditates day and night. He is like a tree planted by streams of water, which yields its fruit in season and whose leaf does not wither. Whatever he does prospers.

Scripture links our ability to prosper and grow while fed by streams of water with our delight in His Word. Meditating on His Word and receiving it into our hearts gets the stream flowing within us. Likewise, the absence of time in the Word brings spiritual drought, and the living water will cease to flow.

During my family’s recent trip to Maui, we took a van ride through the rain forest to Hana and around the eastern coastline of the island. The breathtaking drive took us through lush green jungles, around hundreds of winding curves, and over 56 one-lane bridges that crossed over tropical streams and waterfalls.

Hana fallsEach time we reached one of the bridges and the flowing water came into view, our driver—a native Hawaiian who hadgrown up there and been giving tours for years—would exclaim over the amount of water bursting forth through the rock formations. The area had received much more rain than usual, causing water to flow in torrents in places where a small trickle had existed before. Even she took pictures of the sites!

As we reached the coastline, we saw the result of the heavy flow. The ocean waters surrounding the cliffs of the island on that side didn’t display the usual turquoise green and blue that reflect the beauty of the sky. Instead, we saw brown, brackish waters. The heavy rain and increased flow of the mountain streams caused debris, mud and soil to wash out to the sea.

Dear one, Jesus gave us the living water to make us holy, to cleanse us from the sin that lies within the depths of our stony hearts. That living water has the ability to wash it right out of us, but the flowing stream can only be fed by the rain of the Word.

Ephesians 5:25-26 tells us, “Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her to make her holy, cleansing her by the washing with water through the word.” The Word and the Spirit must unite to wash the remnants of our sin out to sea. And as the obstacles blocking the flow of the Spirit are removed, the Spirit can swell and increase in power, producing His glorious life-giving fruit.

Will you exercise your faith by feeding on God’s Word and allow His Spirit to flow with life in you? Your Promised Land waits.

For the Lord your God is bringing you into a good land—a land with streams and pools of water, with springs flowing in the valleys and hills.  Deuteronomy 8:7