Day Nine of TLT – Living Water

I wanted to try to keep up with sharing about The Lord’s Table, even though there is so much to share during the Breaking Free taping.

Please read John 4:7-30.

This lesson does a masterful job in pointing out how frequently we try to slake our thirst or quite our heart hunger in means that leave us emptier–hungrier–thirstier than when we began.

Our hearts were made for the LORD. He placed a God-shaped hole in them. Yet, like the proverbial round peg being hammered into a square hole, we keep trying to fill the God-shaped voice in us with other things. Even believers do this! We are not immune!

The woman in the scripture tried to fill the voice in her with relationships with men, only to find herself needier than before.

What are some of the things you and I turn to, trying to fill that God-shaped hole?

Certainly, food is one of them. Looking for approval of others is another one for me. To finally conquer the horsemanship issues I have with my horses (and that they have with me! LOL!). Somehow I tend to go to these things, investing myself in them, to get satisfied–but they don’t fit the God-shaped hole inside of me. Running to them leaves me with hopes dashed, disappointed, and the hole seems bigger than ever.

The point of this section of scripture (or at least one of the points) is to turn to JESUS, the LIVING WATER–to invite Him to flood full the hole in my heart that only he can fill. In fact, he alone can fill all my empty places in my life.

Mike Cleveland says:
Did you know that you could cease overeating by beginning to drink? Learn how to quench your thirst in Christ and you will also satisfy your soul hunger. I can tell you that drinking of the Living Water is so pleasing to the taste and so filling that it removes the need to eat sinfully. If we think about this, it just makes sense. We had turned to food for all the wrong reasons, because of a “thirst” within our soul. A “thirst” to be loved, or because we were empty and unfulfilled, or because we needed comfort, or because we were lonely, bored or stressed. These and many more, are all “thirsts” within the soul of man and food was not designed to quench the thirst of the soul.
The Lord’s Table, p. 28

Summary: There is a void in my heart that God designed to be filled with him alone. I must stop looking elsewhere for satisfaction and feast on Jesus, the Bread of Life. Drink of Jesus, the Living Water.

Application: To what do you look to silence the ache inside, to fill the emptiness? What will you do today to change this tendency? To begin to let Jesus and Jesus alone satisfy you. He is the only thing/One who can.