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I
grew up wanting to be perfect. I've no one else to blame for this but myself. I
hungered for people’s approval of me. I
longed for affirmation for who I was and what I did. I had huge expectations for myself and for
everyone else around me. If people didn’t
say just the right thing about what I had done or if they overlooked it, I would live in a puddle of despair.
If they did value it then I would live on a mountain top high for a
couple of days, only to be right back in the puddle once again looking for affirmation
and approval. It became my insatiable quest.
My
life looked a lot like a cup with a hole in the bottom of it. The more I had poured into it, the more
poured out of it. When more was poured in the fuller I felt but it would be a false sense of fullness as it would eventually seep out the bottom and I would be left empty once again.
Jesus
said to the woman at the well in John 4, . . .
“Anyone
who drinks this water will soon become thirsty again. But those who drink the water I give will
never be thirsty again. It becomes a
fresh, bubbling spring within them, giving them eternal life.” (John 4.13-14)
The
woman at the well had the same problem I had, she sought her identity, worth
and value from the people in her life.
She was on an insatiable quest to be filled and she looked for it in all
the wrong places. She believed, like I
believed, people were the answer to this voracious thirst so she ran around holding
out her cup wanting man after man to fill it, only to be left empty in the
end.
It
wasn’t until she met THE MAN, the perfect man, the one who could truly satisfy
the thirst in her heart where she was finally fulfilled and the ravenous thirst
was gone! Jesus met her needs in a way
no one else could. She found her worth
and value in Him and she no longer needed to look anywhere else.
Do
you see what Jesus said to her? “If you
drink from the water I give, you will never thirst again!”
Jesus
plugs up the hole in our heart and produces in us a fresh bubbling spring that
never runs dry. The insatiable quest is
over! The search for satisfaction is done.
So
how do we drink from the water Jesus gives?
How do we let Him fill us, a God we can’t see, instead of looking to
people, we can see, to satisfy us?
We
must start with what we think. Because
what we think on, turns into a belief, which then in turn governs the way we
live. In Romans 12.2 it says, “ . . .
let God transform you by changing the way you think.” If we are to begin to find our value and worth
in Jesus it first starts in our mind.
In
the move the Help, Abileen says to Mae Mobley
throughout the movie. “You is smart. You is kind.
You is important.” Why does she
do this? I think she wants Mae Mobley to
know deep down inside who she is no matter where she goes, no matter what
happens to her, no matter what anyone one says to her.
I
believe God has a similar message for us. He wants
us to know deep down inside who we are, no matter where we go, no matter what
happens to us, no matter what anyone says to us.
He wants you to know . . .
You is special. (Psalm 139.13,14) You is
MINE. (Galatians 4:7) You is Important! (1 John 4.9)
When we think on this. When we dwell on these truths, we will begin
to believe we are special, we are His and we are important and we will no
longer need to quest for our identity and worth in other people or in what we do. We won’t need to because we are full up with
Him.
He has plugged up the hole in our heart and we
are finally satisfied!
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