Wellspring
Junior Level
God’s word tells us in Proverbs 4, to guard our hearts because it is a wellspring of life, or out of the heart come the issues of life. Whatever is in our hearts, no matter how we try to hold it down, or hide it, it still is a wellspring, springing forth what it is made up of. If it is happy then joy springs forth on everyone around you. If it is bitter, then bitterness springs forth. We cannot control it no matter how much time and effort we put into concealing what is in our hearts, it is constantly bursting forth that which is inside. We must get the love of Christ, the Wellspring of living water supplying our hearts so that His goodness and His righteousness springs forth. It is my prayer that you are all enlightened and blessed as you come along on this study with me. Thank you all for reading. :o))
Handout: Wellspring
Teacher's Guide: Wellspring
Proverbs 4:23-27 “Keep thy heart with all diligence; for out of it are the issues of life. Put away from thee a froward mouth, and perverse lips put far from thee. Let thine eyes look right on, and let thine eyelids look straight before thee. Ponder the path of thy feet, and let all thy ways be established. Turn not to the right hand nor to the left: remove thy foot from evil.”
Proverbs 16:22 “Understanding is a wellspring of life unto him that hath it: but the instruction of fools is folly.”
Studying for this lesson I went to the dictionary and looked up the definition of Wellspring.
1. the head or source of a spring, stream, river, etc.;fountain head.
2. a source or supply of anything, esp. when considered inexhaustible:
Pastor Walt Bisbill tells of childhood drives with his folks in Tennessee, he describes the scene one day as his dad stopped the car and led them up a path into the forest to a beautiful discovery. Pastor Walt says this:
“As a boy, I recollect riding with my dad, always the outdoorsman, in the family car. Things appeared so much simpler then. We rode for what seemed like hours to this easily bored eleven year old boy. On one hot summer day I remember him stopping the car, swiveling his head with a smile and asking my sister and me, “Does anyone want a drink?”
We were on this mountain, and I looked around and did not see a Coke machine anywhere! Pop bid us follow him, and like children following the pied piper we hiked to what felt as if it were straight into that mountain. Dad knew the spot, and we arrived shortly.
There was a little stream that appeared to spout like a miniature geyser from a crevice in the mountain. As I approached with a child's curiosity, I saw the clearest water, bubbling effervescently as if it were alive. “This is where the spring begins,” my dad said. He went on to tell us that the wellspring fed the spring which streamed into the very river which had been our traveling companion. The river in turn flowed to the ocean. How important that little wellspring was! There is wealth in a wellspring!
We all knelt down and drank from this fountain. Wow! It was cool as if it had been in a refrigerator, and it had a natural sweetness about it. I drank and drank and drank! Who would have thought that I would like this better than cola! I learned something that day! A wellspring has wealth.”
We understand now that a wellspring is the main supply source coming in. If there is no wellspring, the rivers and streams would dry up. God is so brilliant how He created everything to work together in unison. Each of His creation depending upon the other but ultimately depending solely upon HIM! We were not created to be independent and when we try to be that, we get into trouble, EVERY SINGLE TIME! Just like the rivers, and streams depend upon the wellspring for the water supply, our hearts must have a supply coming in as well. Whatever we take in, that is what will come out. We cannot expect to take in all the things of the world all week, and then open our mouths on Sunday and expect Jesus to come out. If we want the Holy Spirit and Christ’s love to flow out of us, then we must spend some time with Him, letting Him supply our hearts with His goodness. We do this through a daily prayer life and daily study of His word!
John 7:37-39 “In the last day, that great day of the feast, Jesus stood and cried, saying, If any man thirst, let him come unto me, and drink. He that believeth on me, as the scripture hath said, out of his belly shall flow rivers of living water. But this spake He of the Spirit, which they that believe on Him should receive: for the Holy Ghost was not yet given; because that Jesus was not yet glorified.”
Jesus is the wellspring of our souls. Without Him we are dry and thirsty.
When therefore the Lord knew how the Pharisees had heard that Jesus made and baptized more disciples than John, (Though Jesus himself baptized not, but his disciples,) He left Judaea, and departed again into Galilee. And he must needs go through Samaria. Then cometh he to a city of Samaria, which is called Sychar, near to the parcel of ground that Jacob gave to his son Joseph.
Now Jacob's well was there. Jesus therefore, being wearied with his journey, sat thus on the well: and it was about the sixth hour. There cometh a woman of Samaria to draw water: Jesus saith unto her, Give me to drink. (For his disciples were gone away unto the city to buy meat.) Then saith the woman of Samaria unto him, How is it that thou, being a Jew, askest drink of me, which am a woman of Samaria? for the Jews have no dealings with the Samaritans. Jesus answered and said unto her, If thou knewest the gift of God, and who it is that saith to thee, Give me to drink; thou wouldest have asked of him, and he would have given thee living water.
The woman saith unto him, Sir, thou hast nothing to draw with, and the well is deep: from whence then hast thou that living water? Art thou greater than our father Jacob, which gave us the well, and drank thereof himself, and his children, and his cattle? Jesus answered and said unto her, Whosoever drinketh of this water shall thirst again: But whosoever drinketh of the water that I shall give him shall never thirst; but the water that I shall give him shall be in him a well of water springing up into everlasting life.
Jesus made a special trip just to introduce Himself, the wellspring, to this Samaritan woman. He knew she was in dyer need of Salvation. Her soul was dry and thirsty. I think she had been looking for a wellspring, but she was looking in all the wrong places, she was looking to find that in a husband and when they could not supply her heart, then she would try it in another, and another. There are many who do that today. Their hearts are dry, thirsty, and bitter, and so they begin the search for peace, for joy, for that wellspring. Some look for it in human relationship, but it isn’t there, others look for it in the bottle, but never find it. Some turn to drugs, others to food, and some turn to their jobs. No matter how much we search for that longing to be satisfied, for that thirst to be quenched, we will NEVER find it in any other person or thing other than Jesus Christ. Our souls were created to know Him. If one refuses his/her heart to know Him, then they spend all of their lives in search for peace that will never be found in anything or anyone else.
There are others who have known Christ. They have accepted Him as Lord and Savior, but they have lost their first love.
Revelation 2:4 “Nevertheless I have somewhat against thee, because thou hast left thy first love.”
Hebrews 12:12-15 “Wherefore lift up the hands which hang down, and the feeble knees;And make straight paths for your feet, lest that which is lame be turned out of the way; but let it rather be healed. Follow peace with all men, and holiness, without which no man shall see the Lord: Looking diligently lest any man fail of the grace of God; lest any root of bitterness springing up trouble you, and thereby many be defiled;
Jeremiah 2:13 “For my people have committed two evils; they have forsaken me the fountain of living waters, and hewed them out cisterns, broken cisterns, that can hold no water.”
When we turn away from The LORD to other things, we will swivel up, dry and die spiritually. If we are dead spiritually, then we are dead physically, we are not living, only existing. We have cut off the wellspring, and there will be no peace until true repentance comes.
Luke 6:45 “A good man out of the good treasure of his heart bringeth forth that which is good; and an evil man out of the evil treasure of his heart bringeth forth that which is evil: for of the abundance of the heart his mouth speaketh.”
Proverbs 4:23 “Above all else, guard your heart, for it is the wellspring of life.”
We must put on the whole armor of God everyday and hold up that shield of faith to protect and guard our hearts against the tricks and attacks of satan. Out of the heart come the issues of life! If our hearts are damaged, then we will be weak and vulnerable to the evil one’s tactics. We not only want to guard our hearts to protect ourselves from evil, but we want to guard our hearts FOR the LORD. We want to remember all that He had done, all His goodness and to keep that love protected so that we do not turn away from it. God does that for us. Remember back in Exodus, when God was giving Moses the commandments and Moses wanted to see God’s Glory and so God passed before Him and proclaimed these words about HIMSELF!
Exodus 34:5-8 “And the LORD descended in the cloud, and stood with him there, and proclaimed the name of the LORD. And the LORD passed by before him, and proclaimed, The LORD, The LORD God, merciful and gracious, longsuffering, and abundant in goodness and truth, Keeping mercy for thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin, and that will by no means clear the guilty; visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children, and upon the children's children, unto the third and to the fourth generation. And Moses made haste, and bowed his head toward the earth, and worshipped.”
When we see the word thousands, it doesn’t mean just a few thousand…it is limitless. We cannot understand that, the way the English language is, but in ancient languages they spoke in thousands because that is what they knew, but it meant limitless. What God is saying is that He maintains His mercy and His love for us. He protects or guards that FOR us. That word “keeping” in the Hebrew transliteration is natsar, and it means to guard or protect. God guards His heart For us not from us. He maintains that love and mercy so that even in our wickedness and sinfulness, He does not depart from that Love! That is amazing to me.
When we surrender ourselves fully to the Glory of God, we will ALWAYS experience His goodness as well because they go together, they cannot be separated! Guard your heart for God, He guards His heart for you! What a SAVIOR!
We want to guard our hearts and let Him be that wellspring for us so that we can love Him and love others as He has commanded us to do. Then we can LIVE and live joyfully!
Matthew 5:13 “Ye are the salt of the earth: but if the salt have lost his savour, wherewith shall it be salted? it is thenceforth good for nothing, but to be cast out, and to be trodden under foot of men.”
We are here to love God and to love others and to represent Christ and His love to a lost and dying world. We cannot do this on our own, we must have the wellspring to supply what we need to share the good news of the gospel not just by what we say, but how we live because the world is watching, every move! Our everyday lives are the biggest testimony, the biggest light in the darkness. Some will believe our words, but only if our daily lives reflect what we are telling the. It’s true, that old saying, actions speak louder than words. They do indeed!
2 Kings 2:21-22 And he went forth unto the spring of the waters, and cast the salt in there, and said, Thus saith the LORD, I have healed these waters; there shall not be from thence any more death or barren land. So the waters were healed unto this day, according to the saying of Elisha which he spake.
Colossians 4:6 “Let your speech be alway with grace, seasoned with salt, that ye may know how ye ought to answer every man.
“But whosoever drinketh of the water that I shall give him shall never thirst; but the water that I shall give him shall be in him a well of water springing up into everlasting life.”
Dear Righteous, Father,
I bow before You today, in thanksgiving of who You are. You alone are so worthy of all praise. Dear Jesus thank You for loving so much and giving Your very life for me, for all sinners. We would have no hope if it wasn’t for You. Father, today I ask that You help us to guard our hearts and that You help us to stay in fellowship with You daily so that we are supplied with the life giving water that is YOUR HOLY SPIRIT. Fill us up Lord so that we can Love You and love others as we should. When we Love You as we should Lord, everything else will fall into place. I want Your Spirit flowing constantly into me and out of me. I want it to spring up and spray everyone that I come in contact with be it face to face or by text. I want Your love to shine through so bright that there is no mistake. I want Your beauty to shine through me so that I disappear and all the world see’s is You, You, You! Father help me to make the sacrifices that it takes for this to happen, help me to die to self daily. Give me strength because on my own, in my flesh I cannot do this because alone I am very weak. I praise because I know You are so VERY STRONG! Spring up Everlasting Wellspring and use me for Your glory alone! In Your Lovely name I pray. Amen.
~*Cindygirl*~July, 2022