When the well runs dry

Hi how are you all? I am good but feeling tired and a little like my strength has gone. The massive flooding near us has subsided and my husband is still helping to clear out the church we attend as nearly everything was destroyed by flood water. It is a massive job.

This week I want to write on when the well runs dry. I don’t know about you but sometimes I feel like my life is like a well. When everything is going good, my well is full and overflowing. But when circumstances happen, bit by bit my once full well now seems to be emptying at a fast pace.

At the moment, my well feels so dry and I don’t feel I have anything left to give. In the last three months, my mum had passed away, my youngest son had major heart surgery and my oldest son is staying with us for a while. It has been a lot to handle. So what to do when the well runs dry.

I want to start by looking at Hagar’s story in Genesis 21. Hagar fell pregnant with Ishmael by Abraham after a scheme from his wife Sarah. Around 14 years later, Sarah had a son Isaac. When Isaac was little, Ishmael was poking fun at him like brothers do. This made Sarah unhappy so she made Abraham send both Hagar and Ishmael away.

They wandered in the dessert and soon had eaten and drunk all they had. Hagar sat down and made her son sit away from her so she couldn’t see him die. Ishmael started to cry and God heard him.

Why didn’t God hear Hagar? Because God had already given her a promise regarding her son when she was pregnant with him. Most of the time, in our despair, we forget the promises God has given us. No Karen this thing will not pull you under because I promised My joy is your strength. Time to find that joy and remember the promise of God.

When our well runs dry, we need to remind ourselves of Gods promises and rejoice in our future instead of dwelling on our present condition.

In verse 18, God tells Hagar to look up. She did and saw a well of water. God is saying to me today and all of us who feel like our well is dry, look up. Look up and see the future God has already planned for us, look up and see the next step in our journey, look up and see creation and remember the Creator, look up and see the cross where Jesus died for your pain. It is time to look up.

When we do the action of looking up, our eyes automatically look forward. That’s where our focus should be – forward and not down. The verse in Exodus 14:13 says look up and see the salvation of God. Everything we need to fill our well up and regain our strength is found in Jesus.

So this week if you are feeling like I am, or know someone who is, remind them of who they are – a son or daughter of the King. Let’s remember to look up and remember the promises of God. If you don’t know any, search the Bible and you will find hundreds of them. These promises are not only for people in the Bible but they are perpetual and are for you and me too.

We are all in this together with God. I encourage you to keep going with God and I will too and together we will live the life God intended for all of us.

Bless you

Karen