DIG DEEP
Excavating the Depths of God and His Glorious Riches
August 17th, 2022
HOLY WATER
Matthew 6:21, ‘”For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also.”’ (NIV)
We are learning that there is vast spiritual wealth available to each one of us who call ourselves Christians, who consider ourselves children of God. It is buried just under the surface of the Christian life, waiting to be discovered and drawn out. This month we are headed on a dig, so we can explore, excavate and extract the glorious riches God has for His children.
I read recently about an experiment that seemed very cool to me and additionally made me think. What happens if you take a Styrofoam cup and hold it up over a flame? Well, poof! Just like that, it disintegrates and is burned up, immediately gone. However, if the same Styrofoam cup is filled with water, what happens? Not a thing! Not only is it not consumed by the fire, even if it is set on an active fire with glowing embers, the water can and will eventually come to a boil.
This made me think about those of us who walk with Jesus, whose journey with Jesus is the only way we make it through each day. Without Jesus in my life, I am consumed easily and quickly by the world and its temptations, my actions burned up like wood, hay and stubble. It doesn’t take much or long to forget whose presence I was just in when His Word hasn’t reached my heart from my head. I am unable to change the world around me, and in fact, it changes me like a quick-change artist might change an outfit.
But fill me with Holy Water, fill me with Living Water, fill me with the Word, the Bread of Life, fill my vessel with Jesus, and I am whole and remain steadfast. Nor do I burn up or get used up or disappear. I am not consumed by the threats of the world or the enemy, and the spiritual riches He harvests inside of me rise to the surface, ready to be useful for His purposes. When drenched in Him, our vessels can be carriers of His grace and light.
About noonday, we find Jesus sitting on the edge of Jacob’s well when a woman approaches the well with her empty container. She has come to gather water for the household, which was customary for the woman of the house back in the day. What was uncommon was the fact that this woman came at the hottest time of the day, noon. The other women came to gather water early in the morning or late in the evening to avoid the heat of the day. This woman came at noon to avoid the stares and gossip of the other women in the town.
Jesus greets the woman which causes angst in her. It was most uncustomary for Jewish men to speak to Samaritan women. Through a brief dialogue, the woman comes to realize this man can see inside of her, even right through her, and what’s more, it’s not because she can do something for Him, but rather He can do something for her. With no strings attached. He chooses her—this broken-down, used-up, adulterated woman—to be the vessel who will carry Living Water back to her village and tell them about Jesus, this mystical man who told her everything she’d ever done.
He can use any one of us to be the carrier of His Good News to a world that only hears and sees bad news daily. You have a spiritual mine inside of you that is worth so much more than the millions us Americans pursue every year. Dig deep to see what is hidden there inside of you!
2 Timothy 2:21, ‘Therefore, if anyone cleanses himself from what is dishonorable, he will be a vessel for honorable use, set apart as holy, useful to the master of the house, ready for every good work.’ (ESV)
2 Corinthians 2:10b: ‘The Spirit, not content to flit around on the surface, dives into the depths of God, and brings out what God had planned all along.’ (MSG)
