Leave your water jar behind…
Annette Joyner-Moore spoke at the WOW conference on Saturday, and as she shared the story of the woman at the well I latched on to a phrase I’d missed over the years. After the Samaritan woman tasted of the Living Water, the water that only Jesus can give, she left her water jar and went to the city to tell everyone what had happened. Here’s what I get out of that…
Her water jar was empty. She had taken it to the well at a time when no one else was there because she was a Samaritan and she was an outcast. Her plan was to fill her jar with water from the well. The water didn’t last long, so she had to keep returning to the well for refills. But once Jesus set her free from her guilt and sin and filled her soul with the Living Water, she no longer needed her water jar. After all, it was empty. When she left her water jar behind, she symbolically left her past hurts and pains and failures and poor decisions and loneliness. She no longer needed to keep returning to her old ways for satisfaction. Those old ways only offered emptiness. Christ had set her free and had filled her desires with Living Water.
What water jar are you carrying around that you need to leave behind? Have you had an encounter with the Living Water but you still feel empty? Is it because you continue to hold on to your water jar and depend on it to fill your needs? Maybe you’re hanging on to it for security not allowing Christ to completely set you free and provide the Living Water that quenches your thirst for eternity. Leave your water jar behind and move forward in freedom through Christ.
“‘Sir, give me this water so that I won’t get thirsty and have to keep coming here to draw water’…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’” (John 4:15, 28 & 29).
I shared my “commentary” with Annette during the break and she said, “Oh, child, that’ll preach right there, honey! Let’s have church!” She is an African American woman full of life and love for her Savior. I fell in love with her!
Hope