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Read: John 4:13-15
Listen: John 4

Jesus answered, “Everyone who drinks this water will be thirsty again.” John 4:13

While Jesus is sitting at a well, the Samaritan woman comes to draw water. Drawing water is an activity that must be done daily for survival. Walk to the well, draw the water, drink, and repeat. Yet the water from the well quenches her thirst for only a short time. Jesus meets her there and speaks to her, offering something far greater: living water that truly satisfies. Though she has sought fulfillment in relationships and other pursuits and experienced deep rejection, Jesus gently shows her she has been drawing from the wrong source all along. He meets her where she is and reveals that only he can satisfy the deepest longings of her heart.

Just like the woman at the well, we often look to people and things to satisfy our deepest longings. Yet repeatedly we discover that what they offer is only temporary. Even those we love cannot fully satisfy us. We may feel a moment of excitement over a great bargain, a promotion at work, or a big sports win, but the excitement fades with time. What is new quickly becomes old, and the satisfaction we hope for slips away. Beneath it all, our hearts still long for more. We were never meant to be filled by the things of this world. As the psalmist writes, “I thirst for you, my whole being longs for you, in a dry and parched land where there is no water” (Psalm 63:1). The world offers much, but it always leaves us thirsting.

TODAY: Let Psalm 63:1 become your prayer. Pray the words back to God, offering your thirst and longing to him.