Saturated Sponges

I love to read.
My children tease me when they see my choice of book.
It may be history, church history, or books to prepare for Bible study.
That kind of reading is relaxing to me.

I have a few fiction authors that I will read from time to time.
But I guess I’m making up for lost time.
There are so many books I want to read; so much I want to learn.
I feel like a sponge.

My son came home from doing ministry this past summer and shared something with me.
He heard a speaker at a retreat make a comment that impacted him greatly.
You can always get more water out of a damp sponge.

I immediately saw myself at my kitchen sink, wringing out the dish sponge.
Yes, there is always more water to wring out.
I have been pondering how that statement applies to our spiritual life.

For thirty-two years of my life I had religion but not a relationship with Jesus Christ.
There was church attendance, good works, and rote prayers.
There was “trying to be good”.
I was always falling short, wondering if what I was doing was “good enough”.
Wondering if I was good enough.

When you measure yourself against someone else, you can look pretty good.
You rationalize: I’m not a thief or a murderer; I’m not dishonest, I don’t cheat anyone.
What if you measured yourself against a Holy God and His perfect standards?

Looking pretty good is not good enough!
Pretty good against perfection does not measure up!

I had so much to learn.
I didn’t know God’s Word; I never read the Bible growing up.
I had thirty-two years of catching up to do.
I became a sponge!

I saturated myself with the Word of God.
I inhaled books on theology, church history, and I read formidable Christian writers.
The Holy Spirit helped me learn and guided me in Truth.

The statement my son heard this summer made me think.
You can always get more water out of a damp sponge.

I have spent the past twenty-two years as a Christian filling the sponge of my soul.
Just when I think it’s full; just when I think I understand, I realize that I don’t.
There is so much more to learn; there are deeper levels to discover.

Surely God is my salvation; I will trust and not be afraid. The Lord, the Lord, is my strength and my song; he has become my salvation. With joy you will draw water from the wells of salvation. (Isaiah 12:2,3)

With joy you will draw water from the wells of salvation.
What a promise!

So He came to a town in Samaria called Sychar near the plot of ground Jacob had given to his son Joseph. Jacob’s well was there, and Jesus, tired as He was from the journey, sat down by the well. It was about the sixth hour. When a Samaritan woman came to draw water, Jesus said to her, “Will you give Me a drink?” (His disciples had gone into town to buy food.) The Samaritan woman said to Him, “You are a Jew and I am a Samaritan woman. How can you ask me for a drink? (For Jews do not associate with Samaritans.) Jesus answered 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.” “Sir,” the woman said, “You have nothing to draw with and the well is deep. Where can You get this living water?” Jesus answered, “Everyone who drinks this water will be thirsty again, but whoever drinks the water I give him will become in him a spring of water welling up to eternal life.” (John 4:5-11,13,14)

You have nothing to draw with and the well is deep.
Where can you get this living water?

Jesus is the Fountain of Living Water.
Jesus, the Fountain, is thirsty and asks the woman for a drink.
The woman comes to the well to draw water.
She learns that the well water will make her thirsty again.

She needs to drink from the Fountain!
The Fountain that will never run dry!
The Fountain of Living Water.
The Fountain that is Jesus.

She is a Samaritan, a woman, and has had multiple husbands.
Three cultural things that should have prevented Jesus from talking to her.
Jesus came to satisfy the thirst of people like this woman.
Thirsty people with thirsty souls that need to be saturated with Living Water.

Saturate the sponge of your soul with the Word of God.
Wring out His Truth so other thirsty people can drink.
Even when your soul’s sponge is just damp, there is still Living Water inside.

You can always get more water out of a damp sponge.
The well is deep.