First Baptist Church

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Temporary Relief

The promise of temporary relief is pasted on everything from pain killers to candy bars. If your head aches an “Aspirin” will for the moment stop the pain, if you are hungry a “Snickers” promises to stifle the hunger, if you are feeling tired “5 Hour Energy” will give you an energy boost, and if you are thirsty “Gatorade” is the thirst quencher. There are many thousands of products that promise temporary relief and because we have grown so accustomed to symptom remedies, we often fail to realize our root needs.

Such was the case with the woman at Jacob’s well. She had temporarily relived her thirst at the well many times, so often in fact that when Jesus came with the offer of “living waters”, she clung to what her history had taught her. First, she questions his ability, saying that he has “nothing to draw with”. Like her, we often are looking for physical solutions to our spiritual problems, we tend to think that Jesus is unable to reach into the circumstances of our lives and solve our problems. Next she clings to what has always worked for her in the past. Jacobs well had been a reliable source for many years; it had met the needs of people, flocks, and herds, and it shows no sign of ever running dry. She is satisfied with a temporary relief for a root problem that is eternal.

What she failed to understand was that Jesus wasn’t offering a temporary fix but an eternal solution to her spiritual problem.

Temporary relief is of some value, but we cannot count on symptom remedies to solve our root problems. Jesus is the answer to every question – both the physical and the spiritual. I pray that this day, you will find eternal relief from all that ales you in this life by accepting the living waters that Jesus offers to all.