Devotional

Still Looking

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Read John 3:5-42, The story of the woman at the well.
Jesus answered, "Everyone who drinks this water will be thirsty again, but whoever drinks the water I give him will never thirst. Indeed, the water I give him will become in him a spring of water welling up to eternal life" (John 4:13-14).
A young woman, in her early twenties, strives to find fulfillment in her life. She is uncertain what she needs, but decides that perhaps her life would be better if she was married. So she searches for a husband. She gets married, and her marriage to a young man of her choice is something that seems good to her. Yet it is somehow not everything she had expected and she still longs for a true sense of fulfillment. So she goes on searching.She decides that her life would probably seem more fulfilled if she could have a child. And so the couple have a child, and then another. This seems so very good to her. And yet, after some time, she begins again to feel a sense of lacking in her life. So she continues the search for significance.She comes from a good family, she now has a good family of her own, she moves from job to job, and with her family from house to house and city to city. And in the end, she still feels empty. She goes on searching.The woman at the well (John 4) had been married five times, and the man she was with at the time Jesus spoke to her was not even her husband. Perhaps she could not find contentment. Perhaps she changed her life situations frequently--always in search of what would bring true fulfillment.Jesus said, “ "The eye is the lamp of the body. If your eyes are good, your whole body will be full of light. But if your eyes are bad, your whole body will be full of darkness. If then the light within you is darkness, how great is that darkness!” (Mt.6:22-23). He instructed us not to let the temporary things of this earth occupy our hearts desires, but to fill our hearts instead with everlasting things--things of the Kingdom of Heaven. It is a sad thing that there are so many Christians who move through life unfulfilled. They wander from one thing to the next and still do not find contentment--they seem to be thirsting as though they have not drank from the living waters of God. They have the water of life available to them and yet would seek to fill themselves with the things of this life which do not last. And so they go on searching.There is only so much time for us on this earth, and only so much room in our hearts. There is only so many things we can do and only so many lives we can come into contact with. What shall we spend the hours of our day searching for, and what shall we seek beyond the living waters of the Lord? To fill our hearts with the desires of Heaven, the things of God, the cares of Christ, the love of humanity, the burden for the lost, the ache for the hurting--these are things that move us through this life and bring to us fulfillment--they are the things we shall carry into the next life as well. But if our hearts be filled with the cares of this life, material cares, self concern (present and future), personal comfort, daily bread--if these things are what fill our hearts they are the things that are spent and will not last. We cannot take them with us into Heaven and they will leave us empty here on this earth. And so--do we go on searching?