Modern day Christians can easily be divided into two categories: well diggers and well drinkers.
The Living Water given by Jesus is free for whoever decides to drink it.(Revelation 21:17) However I can assure you that for God’s church to become a place where the water of life is being freely out poured and by those around us will cost real work and effort. Just ask my brother who is a missionary. Or my sister who is a pastor’s wife. We need more believers who are well drinkers to become well diggers.
I prefer to be a well digger. Most prefer to be well drinkers. I have known both in my life. Well diggers are rare in today’s culture because well digging is hard work! Well drinkers among the Christian community are a dime a dozen.
It is just so much easier to go to a place where there is already water and get it there.
Looking for living water or to use the metephor “well digging” is not easy:
- Just ask Abraham…he dug wells. Just read the book of Genesis to discover more. In the days of Abraham life was sustained by water wells. If you had many animals, they were the source of keeping them alive. The book of Genesis even records skirmishes that took place over Abraham’s wells. Their enemies sometimes refilled them just for spite. Others wanted the wells he dug and the benefits of them. But Abraham was a man who wasn’t afraid of the physical work and risk involved in well digging. He kept digging until his life was blessed by his efforts. Even his son Isaac benefited from the wells he dug. I admire Abraham the well digger because his efforts caused many to be able to drink.
- Just ask Jesus…he was a well digger. Not in the physical sense, but definitely in the spiritual sense. He dug a well of salvation by offering his own body as the supreme sacrifice for sin. He is the greatest well digger who ever lived. Isaiah 12:3 looks forward to Jesus ministry.
“Therefore with joy you will draw water
From the wells of salvation.”
Jesus told the woman at the well these powerful words found in John 4:14
“But whosoever drinketh of the water that I shall give him shall never thirst; but the water that I shall give him shall be in him a well of water springing up into everlasting life.”
I am very grateful for the living water that Jesus has provided me and for you. If you haven’t drunk from the well Jesus dug, I highly recommend it. It is a well that offers eternal life, freedom from sin, peace, joy and forgiveness. Once you have tasted, you will know how good it is.
I believe that churches ought to be places where you can find that living water. Some churches gush with the water of life. The presence of God is manifested. Lives are changed. Burdens are lifted. Healings take place. Marriages are restored. I contend that there is a price for that. Someone dug a well. Someone prayed. Someone fasted. Someone did the hard work of giving and loving and caring and organizing. And once the water starts to flow, many come simply to drink at the well.
They are the well drinkers. They just assume this blessing appeared there. They don’t really understand the effort necessary. They forget that generations of sacrifice and giving and praying and believing have caused water to flow there. They just like the signs of life and blissfully enjoy the blessing of it all.
But God has well diggers. He usually places them in dry places. He puts them in places where sometimes the enemy will attack and stop the flow of water and the wells have to be dug again. Well diggers don’t give up easily. I admire them because they do the hard work. They teach the class when it’s just a few folks. They preach the gospel in hard places. They disciple others. They always love people who struggle. All because they have drank of the water themselves.
Some people think that small churches are made up of small people. I have been in small churches all my life. That is where the well diggers are. Some call them pioneers. Others call them trailblazers. Others call them apostles or church planters. They aren’t afraid to start ministries and fail. They aren’t afraid of the size of the battle. They have to pray in budgets and people.
And sometimes when the work is hard and they are digging through rock, or when the enemy has come and filled the well to try to stop the precious living water from flowing – the well drinkers around them give up and run to find an easier place. A place where it isn’t quite so hard and no demands are placed on them.
The well digger simply grabs his pick ax and says to the Lord, “I believe that there is water down here somewhere.”
So the question is Who Are You?
