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by Tracey Gummow, Liturgical Assistant, All Saints Anglican Church, Mitchell, QLD. Tracy’s husband, Rick, serves as a minister in SW QLD, including the drought-affected towns of Amby, Morven, Augathella, Charleville, Wyandra, Cunnamulla and Thargomindah.

Intent
Shifting our focus from a view of deficiency, to recognition of God’s perfect sufficiency.

Scripture
Jesus answered her. “If you knew the gift of God and Who it is that asks you for a drink, you would have asked Him, and He would have given you living water.”

“Sir,” the woman said, “you have nothing to draw with and the well is deep. Where can you get this living water?…

Jesus answered, “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.”
John 4:10-12

Come, all you who are thirsty, come to the waters; and you who have no money, come buy and eat! Come, buy wine and milk without money and without cost… Listen, listen to Me, and eat what is good, and your soul will delight in the richest fare. Give ear and come to me; hear Me, that your soul may live. I will make an everlasting covenant with you, My faithful love promised to David.
Isaiah 55:1-3

For I will pour water on the thirsty land, and streams on the dry ground; I will pour out My spirit on your offspring, and My blessing on your descendants. They will spring up like grass in a meadow, like poplar trees by flowing streams.
Isaiah 44:3-4

For the Lamb at the centre of the throne will be their shepherd; He will lead them to springs of living water. And God will wipe away every tear from their eyes.
Revelation 7:17

Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives; he who seeks finds; and to him who knocks, the door will be opened.
Matthew 7:7-8

Reflection
In times of shortage, it is human nature to focus on what is gone. We see this also in the Samaritan woman who, having just been offered living water from our Lord Jesus, focused on His apparent lack of means to supply any water at all.

In Australia right now, the stark absence of water in our tanks, wells, dams, and rivers is impossible to ignore. As too is the absence of the regular seasonal rainfall patterns we once relied on. They are simply no longer there. With no foreseeable rain forecast, questions, suggestive of the same focus as the Samaritan woman’s are being asked time and time again: Where is the rain? Where are the storms?

Where is the means to support our livelihoods?

Just as Jesus pointed out to the Samaritan woman: if only she knew who it was that was present with her in the situation, she would have understood His complete sufficiency in what appeared to her to be an obvious deficiency.

The true deficiency in our nation today, aside from much needed rain, is our faithful consciousness of the capacity of our Lord God Almighty and His presence in our situation.

Our heavenly Father, He who created the heavens and the earth, He who set its limits on land and sea, He who has power over the clouds, thunder and lightning, He is right here with us, standing beside us as we hold our empty pails. He who is our total sufficiency offers us Himself as the source of living water if only we would go to Him asking, seeking, knocking.

Jesus’ invitation is clear and abiding – ‘Come, all you who are thirsty…’; ‘Do not worry. Seek first His Kingdom and His righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well.’

Prayer
Lord God, we give You thanks that You are the Creator of all things and that Your steadfast love endures forever. We trust You when You promised You would never leave us. We accept Your invitation and we come to You, burdened and weighed down in our distress.

Father, we ask Your forgiveness for ignoring You as our Saviour and Lord of our lives. We repent and ask for renewal and revival as we turn back to You seeking a right relationship with You. Refresh our dried faith and pour out on us Your life-giving waters. Lord we believe, forgive our unbelief.

In the name of our Lord Jesus Christ our Saviour, Amen.

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