The Well of Our Lives

Eat thou not the bread of him that

hath an evil eye, neither desire thou

his dainty meats:

For as he thinketh in his heart, so

is he....

Proverbs 23:6-7A

Our pastor recently made a comment during a sermon that really got my attention. In fact, I even put it in this weeks church bulletin. I'm just hoping people will catch onto the thought of the comment. He said:

“Whatever is in the well,

will come up in the bucket.”

                                                                  M. Kelley

I was immediately reminded of the verse from Proverbs I have put at the top of this article. There's a lot of pretense in Christian circles today. When a well-known Christian goes astray, folks always wonder what happened to cause that person to “fall.” It's really not hard to figure out. It didn't just happen...it wasn't a moment of slippage...it was what was in the well, the deepest part of one's heart that came up in the bucket...that came to full light.

I dearly love iced tea and have since junior high school. But never in my life even to this day have I had iced tea like that iced tea that was made from country well water. My Uncle Bob and Aunt Dora's farm was a favorite place for us to visit. While adults visited, my sister Kay and I would run over the low hills, play near a very small trickle of a stream and tromp through a nearby wooded area. When I got older, I got to go and spend long weekends with them. I loved playing in the hay loft of the barn, of trying to milk a cow, collecting eggs from the hen house...but the thing I really loved was drawing water out of their well. Aunt Dora had a hand pump at her kitchen sink but the water used for cooking and drinking was pulled from the well by a very long rope attached to a bucket.

I learned how to remove the wooden raft-like cover that secured the well. There were enough bricks around it so that no one could miss where the well was, but the cover was to keep anything out of the well that shouldn't be there. I recall forgetting one time to put the top over the well and Uncle Bob was pretty upset with me. He said, “If a bunch of bugs gets into the well, then you will end up with “buggy water” when you pull the bucket up.” I recall being young enough to not understand the concept but I certainly do now.

What kind of bugs or other varmints are we allowing into the depths of our lives? I don't care how often we attend church, Bible studies, read Bibles, give generously when the offering plate passes us, hold a church office or sing every hymn in the hymnbook by heart, that may be only surfacy stuff. When we leave that protective lid off of our inner being, it's amazing the junk that can get in and taint what God intends to be pure.

I know a Christian lady who is very active in her church. She does so many really good things for people, is very thoughtful of the needs in the lives of others. She is generous almost to a fault and on good days, is a lot of fun. If the bucket is pulled from the depths of her life on any given day, one could find anger, self-centerdness and even evil. It's a very sad thing to behold. Along the days of her life, she has left the cover off that God intended to protect her inner self. May I say that any of us can fall into the same situation. We live in a day where Satan is in attack mode like never before. No where is Satan more active than in our minds. He loves when all we think about are bad things and those things can run the gamut. Our thought lives can keep us upset at people and situations all the time if we dwell there. Satan smiles when we allow our minds to entertain constant flows of evil thoughts, especially about people. Satan wants to taint the well-springs of living water that Jesus has provided for our lives.

I love the incident in Scripture where Jesus meets and speaks with the Samaritan woman in John 4. In verse 14, a precious promise is given by Jesus:

But whosoever drinketh of the water

that I shall give him shall never thirst;

but the water that I shall give him

shall be in him a well of water

springing up into everlasting life.

I love the picture that verse presents. Look at what He gives us...a well of pure water...that springs up...into everlasting life. Why wouldn't I want to keep that well protected from the things of Satan and the world? Why would I want to let bitterness, anger, ill will and a host of other things seep into that well? God will forgive those things and will empower us to overcome those things. We can do anything through Him. Left to ourselves though and at the most inopportune times, that bucket will draw from the well inside of us and what comes up, may not only keep us poisoned but will spill over into the lives of others.

Just remember: “Whatever is in the well, will come up in the bucket.”

Lord Jesus, only You and I know my heart condition. I don't want anything there that will displease You. I want my life to be pure in motive and action. Convict me when I need it and help me to be all for You I can be. I love You....Amen