When I started this message, I thought I was going to speak to you about the benefits of giving. I’m sure most of you have heard reference to this saying, “It is more blessed to give than it is to receive.” Paul makes reference to this in Acts 20:35. He tells us to remember that Jesus had said this to us earlier.
I cannot find the exact place in scripture where Jesus said those exact words. But that doesn’t really matter. What I understand is this. Paul is saying to us we ought to position ourselves in life to be givers more than we are takers.
As I considered all this, I also understood that oftentimes many of us feel like we cannot give because we do not have anything to give. And we believe that what we do have is only enough to sustain our lives and the ways we want to live.
So, I can see now the Lord wasn’t asking me to speak to you about giving. He wants me to speak to you about being a place that gives. A well is a place that gives. A river is a place that gives. We may not have much in the way of material things, but when we are a well, we will always have something that others can draw from to sustain a part of their lives.
In John, 4:7, Jesus meets a Samaritan woman at a well—Jacob’s well. Jesus was tired and exhausted from the trip He had made that day to reach that point. A woman came to the well to draw water. Scripture says Jesus said to her, “Give me a drink.”
The woman was surprised Jesus would ask her for a drink. She reminded Jesus that she was a Samaritan and that the Jews didn’t associate with them. Jesus responded by telling her if she knew who He was and she asked Him, He would give her living water.
At this, she even said to Him, “Sir, You have nothing to draw with, and the well is deep.” I believe we are in many ways like this Samaritan woman. We are accustomed to going out to the wells in our lives and drawing for ourselves daily the things we need to sustain us.
But Jesus is asking us to be something greater. In the world He wants us to live in we ought to be the wells others use to draw from for their needs. People are around us daily who are tired and weary of the issues of life. They are seeking rest and a break. They want something to sustain them and to get them going again.
When they see us, they wonder if we have anything in our lives which they can drink. Jesus wants us to dig wells of life sustaining blessing right into our lives. He wants us to build wells that contain the things people need to keep going. He wants us to dig wells that offer life to others.
Yes, all of us ought to understand that giving is better than receiving. There blessings in giving, for if we live by a giving heart Jesus will measure His love back to us by the same heart. But it is in being wells of life-sustaining blessing that we go farther.
So make sure you have dug a well of patience in your life for those who will come near seeking patience. Dig a well of compassion and mercy and grace for those who come near seeking restoration. And dig a well of love for those who will come near needing to be loved today.
If you have no wells in your life, you will have no way to meet what others will need in their times of need. You see, if Jesus asks us to give what is important to us, we will hesitate to do that. We will find it difficult to give up some of our hard-earned wealth to someone who we believe doesn’t deserve it.
But a well is there for anyone with a need who comes near. The well is there for the good and the bad. For the person of status and for the person who is unknown. Jesus wants us to be wells of living water to the people He directs to come near and seek.
Dig your well today and be a well of blessings to others.
Live a Delivered Life. Love you.
Live Delivered 