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 them to affirm what I did and who I was. 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 than I would live on a mountain top high for a couple of days and then 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.
It was a thirst I couldn’t quench and a hunger I could never satisfy.
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 movie 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!
By Kristi Huseby
Used by Permission
