Most Christians struggle with sin and temptation. We truly want to change. We want to be obedient to God But we often just seem to lack the power. Even though we have the Holy Spirit as our power source, we still give in to temptation too many times.
The Parable of Two Wells may help you understand temptation and sin in the life of a Christian. In addition, it may give you some help to to make right choices and experience major, sustained victory in your day-to-day walk with the Lord.
The Parable of Two Wells
Once upon a time, there was a farmer who had been born and raised on a certain farm. He eventually inherited the farm from his parents, and now he was raising his family there.
The farmer and his family always seemed to be weak and sick. They didn’t know it, but the well – which had been located next to their farmhouse and serviced their farm for decades – was contaminated. The underground stream that fed the well went under an old, toxic waste dump, and every time they took a drink from it, the contamination hurt them a little bit more. Since the farmer and his family had been drinking from that well for decades they didn’t even know they were sick – they thought everyone felt like that.
One day, a man from the Environmental Protection Agency came by and tested the farmer’s well. The farmer was alarmed to hear of the contamination, and of course, he immediately stopped using the well.
But farms, farmers and farmers’ families need water. So he consulted with some well-digging experts who informed him that they were relatively certain there was another underground stream on the other side of his property, coming from another direction.
The farmer drilled a new well where the experts indicated, and sure enough, the water that came up was pure.
The health of the farmer and his family began to gradually improve after they had stopped drinking from the contaminated well and started drinking the pure water of the new well.
But their troubles were not over. The main problem: the old well remained right next to the farmhouse, but the new well was a good quarter-mile away. To get to it a person had to follow a narrow path up and over a hill, close to some wild animals, and right next to a briar patch. They couldn’t afford plumbing, and it wasn’t always convenient to draw water from the new well.
The farmer and his family really did want to stop drinking from the old contaminated well, and as time passed, they noticed an interesting phenomenon regarding the paths to the wells. Every time they took the trip to the new well, its path was beaten down and smoothed out a little bit more – making it easier to find and more familiar to them. Meanwhile, the path to the old well became less passable and harder to find. It worked the other way,too. A trip to the old well made the next trip there easier, while the new well path became less desirable.
So the farmer and his family made a decision: even though it was harder, they would help each other to remember to use only the new well. Before long they noticed three things: (1) they weren’t weak and sick anymore, because the journey to the new well had become easier, (2) the path to the old well had become almost impossible to find, due to lack of use, and (3) it had now become a natural, unconscious habit to turn right instead of left as they left their farmhouse to get good water.
In this story, your life could be represented by the farmer. At the beginning you have only one contaminated well to draw from – your sinful nature. The new well represents the day you trusted Jesus as Savior. However, the old well (our sinful nature) is not only easily accessible, but you are used to going there. So we must make a conscious choice to continue to drink from the new well and stay away from the old.
How do we do this?
- Take time to examine your heart. Better yet, ask the Lord to examine your heart and tell you if there are areas of your life in which you are being disobedient.
- If He convicts you of something that needs to be confessed, repented of and surrendered to Him, do it now.
- Ask the Lord to help you become quickly aware of it any time you start down the path to the ‘old well.’
- Ask Him to help you remain filled and controlled with the Holy Spirit.
- Make a commitment to spend time reading the Bible and praying every day.
- Make a commitment to go to church regularly for fellowship with other Christians.
- Make a commitment to tell others about Christ as God gives you opportunities.
Remember, every time you obey God, it makes it easier to obey Him the next time. This will add up to long-term, sustained victory.
Has this helped you?