I was senseless and ignorant;
I was a brute beast before you.

Yet I am always with you;
you hold me by my right hand.

You guide me with your counsel,
and afterward you will take me into glory.

Psalm 73:22-24

We, like the Psalmist, are beasts in God's eyes. No matter what we try, or how good we are, "all our righteous acts are as filthy rags" (Is. 64:6). So, how can we feed ourselves, nourish ourselves, learn to content ourselves in God?

We must be fed - but not in the food that we desire. We must seek the food that He has for us. He is, after all, the Spring of Living Water (Jer. 2:13; 17:13).

The woman at the well learned that (John 4). She was the lowest of the low -- the downtrodden, the hated Samaritan. Yet, Jesus stopped to talk to her - to ask her for water. Her first reaction? "Why are you bothering to talk to ME? I'm a Samaritan!" Jesus didn't care. He seeks to nourish everyone - "for whosoever believes in Him will not perish."

Jesus told her that if she knew who He was, she wouldn't bother to talk about "regular" water. He, after all, was the Living Water. The woman, like us, was blinded by the obvious.

"Sir," she said, "there is no way to draw water. How do you plan to get this water?"

Can you see Jesus, compassion in His eyes, reaching out to her? Not stigmatizing her because she was different, unusual, unpopular, or unlovely. He wanted to help her. "Everyone who drinks this water will be thirsty again, but whoever drinks the water I give him will never thirst. Indeed, the water I give him will become in him a spring of water welling up to eternal life."

Now she's interested. She wants it! It will make her life easier, she thinks. But Jesus wasn't giving her water to keep her from coming to this well, or to His well of prayer, study, and worship, for that matter. He was offering her living water - a new life.

"Bring your husband" He says. "Sir, you know I don't have a husband." Of course He knew that. He knows everything. But He didn't condemn her for having many husbands -- many lovers. He wanted her to know that He will forgive for every sin. He's aware of our failings, and He loves us anyway. Then He told her something she would never forget. "I Am the Christ."

The woman believed - her thirst and hunger was assuaged - and she ran to the town to tell others.

So how do we feed our beast? How do we assuage the hunger, the hole we have deep in our souls? By communion with the Living Water. By praying, worship, seeking others of like mind, Bible study, and by the most important thing of all - the last thing we see the woman do - going to tell others. For if Jesus CAN fill the hunger in our soul, if He IS the Living Water, why should we keep that to ourselves?

Even when we are "senseless and ignorant," He is with us. "Yet I am always with you; you hold me by my right hand. You guide me with your counsel, and afterward you will take me into glory."

Isn't that amazing? Jesus, who was with God during the creation of the earth, is WITH US. He wants to feed your hunger. He wants to fill your needs. Let Him supply you. It's there, just waiting for you. The Living Water awaits you. Drink your fill, eat what you need, and share the rest with others. Like the loaves and fishes, there is a vast supply! Feed your beast, and then go out and help others tame their own beasts in the name of Jesus Christ!

Amen.