Guard Your Heart.

“Above all else, guard your heart, for everything you do flows from it.” Proverbs 4:23

I never knew why our hearts must be guarded above all else, until I let my guard down. When I opened the gates of my heart, floodwaters of feelings came rushing in. At first, my dry heart welcomed the waters, as drop after drop infiltrated every crevice, making me feel whole. 

Little by little, the gentle drops transformed into a tsunami of turmoil, extinguishing the light I had within me. Suddenly, I was drowning as the waters consumed me, rushing into my heart and out of my eyes. Until the storm finally ceased, bringing forth perfect peace. With my tear ducts dry, I could see clearly. Instead of floodwaters, I needed His living water to fill every crevice of my soul. 

I am the woman at the well.

I picture her cracked lips in the heat of day matching the cracks within her heart. She was drawing water, but Jesus recognized her deeper thirst for love from the pattern of her past. Relationship after relationship swept over her, leaving her in the remains of ruins. Yet, Jesus met her in the storm, telling her, “If you knew the gift of God… you would have asked Him and He would have given you living water (John 4:10). 

She could not fathom how she could obtain living water that would quench her thirst, when all she saw in front of her was a deep well with nothing to draw with. All she felt was her deep need for love, without reciprocation. 

Until Jesus calmed the storm within her soul, with His voice of truth ringing above the roar of the waves. The voice that told the Samaritan woman, “Everyone who drinks this water 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” (v. 13-14).

When she asked Jesus to give her this water, He revealed to her He is the source of life, the Messiah. She then left her water jug behind, along with her old ways, to proclaim the good news.

I am the woman at the well. No longer finding fulfillment from others when I thirst, but leaving my past behind and seeking Him first.