John 4:13 – “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.”

Jesus, I have this spring of living water in me, but the enemy threw debris in the well to stop the flow.  This past January (2015), You told me that this would be the year that I get my flow back.  Over the past 11 months, I have seen You do miraculous things in me: demolishing obstacles in my thinking; removing bitterness and grudges that I couldn’t seem to get past; washing away regrets and shame that held me back; and restoring vision and passion for my calling once again.

Lord, I want my life to reproduce springs of living water in others and without Your work in me, I would have stayed self-focused and stuck.

Father, please forgive me for allowing thirst that should have driven me to the living water to drive me to counterfeits.  No wonder why in some areas I have been dry!  You have an abundant supply of everything I need for life and godliness.  Please continue to set me free from every false pursuit and gently lead me to the true source of Living Water.

Now you:

• Are there areas in your life that feel dry and unproductive?  Is your growth in the Lord “stuck”? Do you feel as though you have debris clogging your “flow”?
  • If so, ask the Lord to remove the debris.  He will do a work in you like you will never believe!
  • For inspiration, read the story of Isaac re-opening the wells of his father Abraham in Genesis 26:18.

Here’s how this played out in my life this year: 

Last winter, I realized that I was struggling with insecurity and fear of failure that was almost paralyzing.  I was also waking up in the middle of the night with major anxiety.  What I realized was that the sweet flow of the Lord’s presence in me, to me and through me was now absolutely stuck.  I knew that the Lord hadn’t taken His presence from me, but the gunk left over from the hard times I went through was clogging up my ability to have the fruitful relationship with God and I had always enjoyed in the past.

The other day, my daughter came out of the bathroom and told me that the water was backing up in the shower.  When I went in to clean out the drain, the tub was coated with dirty, brown soap scum.  It was so nasty! But that’s nothing compared to the rat sized, goopy, scum-covered hair-ball I pulled out of the drain! ugh.  That hairball was the accumulation of months of tiny pieces of hair going down the drain, getting caught and clinging to the dirty soapy water that passed by.  The problem was so gradual and below the surface that we didn’t notice it was happening until the day the water wouldn’t drain anymore.

And that’s how it happened in my heart. Like many people, life has thrown me a lot of curve balls and I have suffered some pretty big losses . Over time, the difficult circumstances in relationships and life caused me to harbor feelings and thoughts that were toxic to me and to others.  I love the Lord and my fellowship with Him; but gradually, I started feeling an increasing distance and a difficulty in being real with God.

We live in a fallen world and bad things happen to us.  If we have a relationship with the Lord, He pulls us through and it’s easy to think, “Well, that’s over.”  But is it?  If we’re not careful, the enemy will come in and recycle those old memories and feelings of loss as if it’s happening to us all over again.  Before we know it, little pieces of mismanaged memory have built up into a really big clog in the flow of the river of living water that the Lord promised would spring up from within us.

So if you’re feeling “clogged”, you can take the problem to the Lord.  He knows just how to remove that nasty ball of debris that life has thrown in your heart and He’ll help you get your flow back.  However, while He is a master at setting us free, He won’t intrude where He has not been invited. Invite the Healer into your heart and watch Him bring His soothing touch to every raw and injured place. He is so good!