Bible Studies

FOOD AND WATER FOR THE SOUL

by Luella Campbell
12/30/13
Not For Sale
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FOOD AND WATER FOR THE SOUL

"Just then His disciples returned and were surprised to see Him talking with a woman. But no one asked, 'What do you want?' or 'Why are you talking with her?'

"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 Messiah?'

"Meanwhile His disciples urged Him, 'Rabbi, eat something.'

"But He said to them, 'I have food to eat that you know nothing about.' Then His disciples said to each other, 'Could someone have brought Him food?' 'My food,' said Jesus, 'is to do the will of Him who sent me and to finish His work.'" John 4:27-34 (NIV).

Samaritan or Jew, there was a startling similarity between the woman and the disciples. They lived in the environment of the natural and viewed life from the same perspective.

When Jesus began to talk to the woman about living water, she didn't get it because she thought no further than water for her body. When He told His disciples that He had food to eat that they did not know about, they didn't get it either because they thought He meant food for His body.

Jesus was so excited about the outcome of His conversation with the woman that it sustained and strengthened Him more than food. To do His Father's will was what nourished His spirit and kept Him going. On one occasion, when He was criticized by the Pharisees for eating with the riff-raff, He told them that He had come to seek and save the lost, not those who thought they didn't need saving.

When the woman arrived at the well, she was a lost soul. She had left the path that would take her to the Father, ignored the landmarks of His Word that would keep her on track and wandered in the wilderness of sin, alone and afraid. Jesus showed her the way back and she gladly responded.

She rushed back to the town, her burden of guilt and shame gone, to share the good news with the townspeople from whom she had escaped only a short while before by going to draw water in the heat of the day. 'I think I have found the Messiah. Come and check it out for yourselves.' Why was she so sure that the man at the well was the Messiah? How did He know such intimate details about her without divine revelation?

Not only that but His disclosure of her sinful life brought her release from guilt, not condemnation. She felt light and clean as she hurried back to share her joy with the people who despised her. Now that's a transformation! Again it's this inward thing that mere religion cannot produce; freedom from guilt and an inner peace that was evidence that God had no issues with her. She was forgiven and she had the witness in her spirit that she was clean and new inside.

No one can explain what happens when a person believes in Jesus. There is a supernatural transaction that takes place in the inner being. All guilt is removed, shame and fear go, and are replaced with an inexplicable peace. This is the result of something that takes place in the mind.

Until that moment the woman did not know that God loved her and had provided forgiveness and cleansing from her sin. She believed that she was worthless and the belief produced her feelings of guilt, shame and fear. When the truth dawned on her that she was beloved and that the Father wanted her to worship Him, the lie was gone and with it her destructive emotions, and in their place she experienced God's peace.

To see a person set free from condemnation and reconciled to the Father who loved her was much better than a delicious meal, no matter how hungry Jesus might have been. Did He ever get His drink of water? We will never know! His thirst might not have been quenched at that moment but He had satisfied a far deeper thirst with the water that became a perennial spring in her soul.

Are you still thirsty? Jesus has water for you that will satisfy you forever.