Living Water

So how is it with your soul? That’s a question John Wesley would continually ask people. Is it well, or is your soul struggling? Is your soul dried up like the plant I used during the children’s sermon on Sunday; parched and dying? One of the tricks we constantly use is to put on a face in order to conceal our true condition to others. We present ourselves to both friends and strangers as fit, when the truth is very much the opposite. The good news is that Jesus is the Living Water (John 4). The bad news is that if our lives are already filled with stuff, we have no room for much of that living water. As Richard shared with us so accurately on Sunday morning; we must first empty ourselves of those things that occupy us in order to receive the living water that Jesus offers us. That’s a hard thing to do: to empty oneself. We rather enjoy holding on to resentment and anger, someday secretly hoping for retaliation. We often wallow in fear and doubt, with it we are not required to step out. We even seem to enjoy bitterness and drudgery, who needs joy anyway? Yeah, Jesus has much to offer each of us (more than we can really imagine), but to be receptive to his gifts means we first must empty ourselves of the trash we’ve picked up from the world. So how is it with your soul?