Many of you may have grown up on a farm or visited a friend where there was a hand pumped well in the farmyard. On a hot summer day there was nothing as refreshing as pumping that cold well water out into the cup or ladle and taking a long cool drink. This week I’ve been thinking about another well, since it has been the topic in two books I have been reading and clearly re-enacted in season one, episode eight of the Chosen. It is the story in John 4 about the woman at the well. What do these two wells have in common? Let’s consider.

Jesus had been walking through Samaria on his way to Galilee. Hot and tired, he stopped at Jacob’s well. When a Samaritan woman approached the well, Jesus asked her for a drink of water. This was the first surprise for the woman, since the dislike between Jews and Samaritans had lasted a long time. Jesus even increased her amazement when he told her he could provide her “living water” which would quench her thirst for life. She answered him,

11 “Sir,” the woman said, “you have nothing to draw with and the well is deep. Where can you get this living water? 12 Are you greater than our father Jacob, who gave us the well and drank from it himself, as did also his sons and his livestock?” 13 Jesus answered, “Everyone who drinks this water will be thirsty again, 14 but whoever drinks the water I give them will never thirst. Indeed, the water I give them will become in them a spring of water welling up to eternal life.” 15 The woman said to him, “Sir, give me this water so that I won’t get thirsty and have to keep coming here to draw water.” (John 4:11-15)

John Piper, in his book Desiring God, says, “The amazing thing is not that He can give her water without a bucket, but that His water satisfies forever.” Does Jesus mean physical water, H2O or something else? Let’s consider two other scriptures a little later in John:

63 It is the Spirit who gives life; the flesh is no help at all. The words that I have spoken to you are spirit and life. (John 6:63) and

37. . . .”If anyone thirsts, let him come to me and drink. 38 Whoever believes in me, as the Scripture has said, ‘Out of his heart will flow rivers of living water.’ 39 Now this he said about the Spirit, whom those who believed in him were to receive, . . . (John 7:37-39)

Piper goes on to say, “So the water Jesus gives is the Holy Spirit. The presence of God’s Spirit in your life takes away the frustrated soul-thirst and turns you into a fountain where others can find life.” “The work of the Spirit of Christ is to make the Word of Christ clear and satisfying to the soul.”

“The water offered to the Samaritan adulteress was the Word of truth and the power of the Spirit. . . . not dry lifeless, powerless truth, but truth soaked with the life-giving Spirit of God! The word of promise and the power of the Spirit are the living water held out to the Samaritan harlot.” (and to us).

We are invited, then, to take that life-giving Spirit and share it with others. We can do that in a large group setting, but the most effective way of sharing God’s Word has been to follow the example of Jesus. Just like Jesus spoke to the woman at Jacob’s well, we can effectively share our faith with one person at a time. Fran Sciacca, author of To Stand and Not Be Moved, gives us this “abiding principle”, “The most efficient and permanent way to impact the world for Jesus Christ has always been, and continues to be, one dedicated life touching another.”

To be effective in sharing your faith, you don’t need to get up in front of a group, but just take time to talk to that family member, neighbor or friend at work, and tell them the joy you find in Jesus! Blessings on your way to boldly share your faith!

Written to God’s honor and glory.