Flee to the Spring

In Genesis 16 Hagar flees into the wilderness when she comes to a spring. God speaks to her there and she calls it Beer Lahai Roi, Well of the Living One who sees me. Returning to our First Love is like fleeing to the spring in the wilderness. We come to the end of our ability to figure things out, we don't know which way to turn, or who to turn to for the answers. And then, Jesus reminds us, come. Even in the desert where everything seems barren, there is water for us.

We have a friend who recently went on a trip to Israel. In the dry hills and amongst the sparse vegetation is a spring of fresh water. Our friend climbed to the jumping off point, which was quite high up and took some time to decide whether to jump into the pool or not. Eventually, he took the jump. God takes us to places like this, where we have nowhere else to turn to but Him. There is no alternative. This is the only pool in the desert for who knows how many miles. And then He takes us to a new vantage point of trust where He doesn't want us to only drink, but to actually jump into His Spirit water. To not only drink, but to swim. To trust like never before. It really takes faith to take that leap, it is such a high jump and scary to leap off the cliff and trust everything is going to be ok. God loves us in this place, because then He gets our complete devotion, our full surrender and our worship.

Hagar named the spring, The Well of the Living One who Sees Me. God hasn't forgotten about you or me. He never will. In the same way He gave Hagar a clear direction in this place, when we come into His presence in this completely surrendered and desperate way, we will hear Him leading the way. You will hear a voice behind you saying, This is the way, walk in it. "My sheep know my voice." Even if that voice is simply saying, Wait.