John 7:38 (CSB)
The one who believes in me, as the Scripture has said, will have streams of living water flow from deep within him.
There is an old story about a man who needed a well, so he contacted a well-digger to dig a well for him on his land. The well-digger explained to the man that he needed to give daily attention to the well. “Every day, pump some fresh water from it, or you will be sorry,” he warned. But in time, the man became complacent, focusing on making everything around the well beautiful, including landscaping and rocks. He was excited about the well and was striving for its outer appearance to be beautiful.
If we're not careful, we can do the same thing spiritually. It is easy to get caught up in religious practices, church attendance, Bible reading, prayer, and fellowship, all the while forgetting the true source of our spiritual life. Jesus attempts to redirect our hearts away from exterior beautification when He informs those who want to follow Him of how impossibly difficult it is going to be. “Then he said to them all, ‘If anyone wants to follow after me, let him deny himself, take up his cross daily, and follow me" (Luke 9:23, CSB).
The cross was a Roman instrument of torture and death. Jesus is not painting a pretty picture of what it's going to look like to follow Him. In American cultural Christianity, we tend to put ourselves at the center of the gospel, claiming that living the blessed life is largely focused on having a materialistically convenient life in this world. So we end up focusing on making everything beautiful around the exterior of the well and totally overlooking the life-giving water that we need pumping into our souls every day.
Increasingly, Christians in our culture are becoming disillusioned with their faith because everything looks good on the exterior of their well. But yet, on the inside, they are empty and dry. Since something doesn't seem right, they naturally draw the conclusion that there must be something wrong with either the Church, the Bible, Christianity, or just having faith in God. They're disappointed because they worked hard to beautify the exterior of the well. They were promised a “blessed life,” but they experienced pain and suffering the entire time they were landscaping around there well.
Back to the man in our story who neglected his well: He did not heed the advice of the well-digger, and his water became stagnant. The fresh water from the underground channels stopped flowing because he failed to keep the water pumping. Likewise, whenever we stop seeking the life-giving water of Jesus, our spiritual lives begin to stagnate. It is crucial that we have the daily flow of the life of Jesus circulating through our hearts, souls, and minds. If not the world, the flesh and the devil will make sure that we spiritually grow stagnant and frustrated with our faith.
Upon examination of the well, the well-digger explained to the man, “Sir, the well is not your source. You must stop focusing on beautifying your well and turn your attention to pumping fresh water daily.” The underground tributaries are the source of life-giving water, but in order for them to continually feed the well, the man had to pump water out every day. It required a daily flow.
Jesus is the source of life-giving water, and your soul is the well. But you must keep the living water flowing through your life every day. The more you allow the life-giving water to fill you and flow through you, the more spiritually refreshed, refueled, and rejuvenated you will be. Make no mistake about it; you will still hit rough times in this life. There will be times when everything around you will fall apart and dry up. But if you keep the living water of Jesus flowing through your life daily, you will be like the tree planted by living water in Psalm 1:3 (CSB), “He is like a tree planted beside flowing streams that bears its fruit in its season, and its leaf does not wither. Whatever he does prospers.”
So dear brothers and sisters, let's focus today on the true Source by seeking first the Kingdom of God and His righteousness, by taking up our cross, and by identifying with the sacrificial death of Jesus. Let's turn our focus away from the exterior, temporary facade of religion and turn our hearts towards the freshwater pumping in our spiritual lives every day. Never forgetting that Jesus himself is the source of our life-giving water.