Matthew 25 Challengeናሙና

Matthew 25 Challenge: WATER
by Tom Basson

CHALLENGE: Drink only water today.

663 million people in the world live without clean water. That’s nearly 1 in 10 people worldwide. Or, twelve times the population of South Africa. The majority live in isolated rural areas and spend hours every day walking to collect water for their family. Not only does walking for water keep children out of school or take up time that parents could be using to earn money, but the water often carries diseases that can make everyone sick. So access to clean water means education, income and health - especially for women and kids. Clean, drinkable water changes everything.

In John chapter 4, Jesus asks a Samaritan woman to give Him a drink. This interaction is possibly one of the most profound and powerful moments in all of scripture. In fact, it’s the longest recorded conversation that Jesus has with anyone in the Gospels. This was highly unusual, because not only were Jews forbidden to speak to Samaritans, but men, especially a Jewish Rabbi, would never have dreamed of speaking to a woman – especially a woman with her reputation.

And yet Jesus brushes all of that aside with a simple request for water.

The woman had come to the well with a bucket. But when she got there she met a well who doesn’t need a bucket. Jesus Himself. He says to her, “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.”

She doesn’t understand yet, but Jesus assures her, “Everyone who drinks this water [in the well] will be thirsty again, 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.”  

All of us have a thirst.

A thirst for meaning.

A thirst for purpose.

A thirst for belonging.

A thirst for connection.

A thirst for love.

As Christ-followers we need to find ways to help quench people’s physical thirst. At the same time, we have an incredible opportunity to offer those around us the “living water” of Jesus Christ.

What are you thirsting for today?

What "well" are you looking to?

And how many buckets will you go through before you realise that the reason you are not satisfied is not because you have the wrong bucket, but because you are standing at the wrong well?