To care for the plant is to care for the grapes, for the fruit is nothing but the overflow of what a plant is fed. –Notebook of a viticulturist
I love the story of the woman at the well in John chapter 4.
I guess because she is me– her story is my story.
When I returned to the church, I was a desperate woman. And, in this beautiful story, Jesus meets a desperate woman with a thirsty heart:
Jesus, worn out by the trip, sat down at the well. It was noon. A woman, a Samaritan, came to draw water. Jesus said, “Would you give me a drink of water?” (His disciples had gone to the village to buy food for lunch.) The Samaritan woman, taken aback, asked, “How come you, a Jew, are asking me, a Samaritan woman, for a drink?” (Jews in those days wouldn’t be caught dead talking to Samaritans.) Jesus answered, “If you knew the generosity of God and who I am, you would be asking me for a drink, and I would give you fresh, living water.” The woman said, “Sir, you don’t even have a bucket to draw with, and this well is deep. So how are you going to get this ‘living water’? Are you a better man than our ancestor Jacob, who dug this well and drank from it, he and his sons and livestock, and passed it down to us?” Jesus said, “Everyone who drinks this water will get thirsty again and again. Anyone who drinks the water I give will never thirst—not ever. The water I give will be an artesian spring within, gushing fountains of endless life.” The woman said, “Sir, give me this water so I won’t ever get thirsty, won’t ever have to come back to this well again!” John 4: 6-15 The Message
Feed your heart with Living Water
Going again to Brian Simmons, The Divine Romance, he encourages us:
Fill yourself with the sweet promises of God. Let them saturate the way you think, and they will drip from every word you say. Others will be fed by the nourishing truths that flow from your lips, The promised land was a land flowing with milk and honey–abundant and rich. This is who you are–abundant and richly filled with living truths. The very Spirit of God, the promised land, so to speak, is within you.
Milk and Honey, The Divine Romance, June 28
What a thirsty heart needs?
Is the Word of God, for it is… eternal, true, powerful, and will accomplish everything it is sent to do:
- The grass withers and the flowers fade, but the word of our God stands forever. Isaiah 40:8 NLT
- Sanctify them through thy truth: thy word is truth. John 17:17 KJV
- For the word of God is alive and powerful. It is sharper than the sharpest two-edged sword, cutting between soul and spirit, between joint and marrow. It exposes our innermost thoughts and desires. Hebrews 4:12 NLT
- It is the same with my word. I send it out, and it always produces fruit. It will accomplish all I want it to, and it will prosper everywhere I send it. Isaiah 55:11 NLT
If you want an abundant life…
It doesn’t just happen–it is created.
Your “harvest,” the fruit your life bears, doesn’t just happen either.
It is the product of your many deliberate choices; the things you feed your heart on, will then proceed from your life.
As His branch, your choices, and what you feed your heart, will become the overflow of your life.
“He became the true Vine, that we might be true branches. Both in regard to Christ and ourselves the words teach us the two lessons of absolute dependence and perfect confidence.” ― Andrew Murray, The True Vine
Women With Destiny 