Deep within each of us there must be a little seed of faith. Sometimes it is like a deep well. The pump on the well has never been activated. So the pump is a little rusty. Perhaps the rust accumulated from years of not being used and now the pump is ceased. It is stiff and squeaky and requires a lot of strength and effort to even make that pump move again. Are you going through a trial at this time? Can you relate to the old rusty pump? Often we go through life, things are going good in our daily lives and we can cope. Then all of a sudden, all of our reserves run dry. Something flips in our lives and we desperately need to reach deep into that well and pull up that faith again. We are desperate. There seems to be nowhere that we can turn. There is no hope in the doctors. They can only do so much. We find ourselves on our knees trying to access that faith, in a hope that God will somehow miraculously send a gushing spring of water through the broken pump. I can picture it. I’ve been there, sitting on the front steps of the church whose doors were locked. Sitting there alone . . . wishing there was someone who had that special connection to God who would intercede on our behalf. On that day there was no one else. I sat on that church step and prayed for my nephew who had bacterial meningitis. Doctors gave us very little hope that he would survive. God had me in that deep well. I prayed the only way I knew how, desperately with a seed of faith not bigger than a mustard seed. The cry of my heart was real. God please heal him. God did answer my prayer and my nephew survived.
Many times God answers our prayers in ways we don’t understand. Sometimes we can even look back and say, “Boy am I ever glad God didn’t answer my prayer in the way that I prayed.” Sometimes we say, why didn't he. . .?We have to know what we ask of God. We need to know in our hearts that God knows the situation in detail. God is all knowing, loving and compassionate. Sometimes we don’t recognize these truths about God, especially during times when we have these thoughts, God let us down. He didn’t answer our prayers, therefore he does not love me or maybe he doesn’t even exist. Is it so hard to believe that the God who created the universe does know what is best and that just maybe His plan for life and death is perfect? Often we cannot see past the temporal world and what is going on in our lives. The world can seem dark and ugly when we are in the dark well. I can vision that well gushing out living water as we cry out from the deep. That living water is not temporal, it is eternal. When we live or die in Christ we are eternal beings. Our journey here on earth, however long or short, it is a part of a divine plan. Remember, God is all knowing. He knew us before we were conceived Jeremiah 1:4-5. He knew the day we would be born and the day we would die. Psalm 139:13-16 How we live the time between those two dates is up to us. You may ask, “What about those who don’t have a choice or can’t make a choice?” For babies and young children. Mt: 19:14 Jesus said,"Let the little children come to me, and do no hinder them, for the kingdom of heaven belongs to such as these." I believe there is an age of accountability - a time in life when you know the difference. God knows the hearts and minds of mankind.
Whatever deep well you find yourself in at this time, you can activate that rusty pump yourself. God desires a relationship with you. Just as Jesus sat at that well waiting for the woman at the well to draw water, he waits for you to put your hand on that pump to draw water too. When you take that step of faith, Jesus will give you living water. Oil that pump daily with prayer. Receive that living water and in doing so you will embrace the love God the Father has for you. He is the Father who will comfort you in all your troubles 2 Corinthians 1:3-4 He carries you close when you are feeling broken hearted. Psalm 34:18 God will someday take away all the pain you have suffered on earth. Revelation 21:3-4
Someday, all your questions will be answered. I’m thinking that on that day when we stand before God the Father and our Saviour Jesus Christ, all our questions won’t even touch our lips. They won’t matter. What will matter is that we are standing in His Holy Presence, in the glory of a great and awesome God, enveloped in the Loving arms of the God of all Creation. Praise to our great and mighty God. This life is just a glimpse of the amazing splendour of life that we will have when we pass from here to there . . . for all eternity. 
