Tag: streams of living water

Genesis 26:18 ” Isaac reopened the wells that had been dug in the time of his father Abraham, which the Philistines had stopped up after Abraham died, and he gave them the same names his father had given them.”

After Abraham’s death his enemies came and plugged up his wells to ruin them for any future use. They threw sand, rocks, old wood, dead animal carcasses and garbage into the holes… filling them up completely and leaving them inoperable.  And it says that it wasn’t until Isaac reopened them that the water flowed again.  What’s interesting in this verse is the word ‘reopened’ which has a two-fold meaning…it means to rediscover and to re-dig.  The enemy continues even today to try and plug-up our wells…not with sand and rocks, but with compromise, sinful habits, and worldly thinking.  As Jesus told the Samaritan woman at the well in John 4:10, ” If you knew the gift of God and who it is that asks you for a drink, you would have asked Him and He would have given you living water.”  Wells are necessary for the basic sustenance of life – water.  But when your well has been stopped up, the water can no longer flow and you become a barren, dry desert.

Jeremiah 17:7-8 ” But blessed is the man who trusts in the Lord, whose confidence is in Him. He will be like a tree planted by the water that sends out its roots by the stream. It does not fear when heat comes; its leaves are always green. It has no worries in a year of drought and never fails to bear fruit.”

It’s easy to trust the Lord when everything is going great in our lives.  When we’re happy and healthy and all around us is peaceful…it’s almost effortless to put our faith in God.  But it’s what happens when the unexpected and  the unanticipated crash into our lives that really shows how rooted and grounded we are in Him.  Droughts are long dry spells when rain doesn’t fall…the plants wither and the ground cracks.  There are times when all of us can go through “spiritual” dry spells.  Times when our soul seems parched, our body is withering, and our mind cracking under the stress… and we feel God is so far away.  But if we’re firmly rooted in the streams of living water, regardless of the trial, we can still flourish and grow.