I turned on the faucet to do dishes and no water came out. I went to another faucet and found the same. Stepped outside into 100 degree heat to see no sprinklers running. Walking over to the pump, I discovered no pressure. The pump on our well was dead.

We live in the country. Without a pump there’s no way to water the farm. Chickens, dogs, cats, and horses rely on us to keep their thirst quenched, especially in the summer heat. The yard and garden and trees need water, too.

Inside the house you can’t flush a toilet without the pump. My normal routine is two or three loads of laundry a day. No way to do that without water.

Walking away from our broken pump, I suddenly felt thirsty. Fortunately, we still have water bottles left over from Cami and Drew’s wedding so I went to the garage and got those. Then I told the boys no flushing the toilets. Immediately every child had to poop. Yuck piles up without water to wash it away.

I called the pump repair shop, but it was late afternoon. The company’s owner said all his guys were in the field working on other pumps, but he’d send a service team as soon as possible.
A few hours later with the sun blazing on the horizon, the head of the company arrived himself. The boss wiping sweat from his brow couldn’t get our pump going.

In the middle of this, I was late for a special prayer service at church. A time to plead for God to heal his people. These past few years have been hard at our church. Marriages crumbling like crazy. Families falling apart. Children going astray. Sicknesses ravaging the faithful. Even our pastors feeling the heat.

The pastors wives had called all the ladies to come and pray. To humble ourselves and beg for God’s mercy. God’s healing. God’s restoration for our church and our families. And in the midst of my tears at the prayer service our broken pump made perfect sense.

We have a wonderful, deep, rushing well that keeps everything living on our farm, but with a broken pump, we can’t touch the clean, pure water 160 feet beneath our land.

Praying for God’s restoration at our church, I realized His living water was available, we just needed to fix our pumps. Our hearts which we use to access God’s holy spirit. In our marriages. Our families. With our children and our pastors. First we must know we have a God-given pump to tap into His living water to start with. The new heart God gives us when we accept Jesus as our Lord and Savior.

In Psalm 51, King David begged God to grant him a new pump. A heart faithful and true to God. Then King David confessed his sins.

It’s so important we confess our sins to keep our pumps working properly.

Driving home from the prayer meeting, I asked the Lord to heal my pumps. The pump on our well that keeps our farm alive and my spiritual heart that keeps me straight with God.

The following day a service team replaced our well pump. It’s brand new and working better than ever. On Sunday morning I went to the altar and wept in the presence of God before taking communion. Wouldn’t you know it, after communion, our Pastor preached on Psalm 51.

Today our sprinklers are running, the sound reminding me of blood swishing through a beating heart. Sweet, clean water bringing life to our farm.

“Whoever believes in me, as the Scripture has said, streams of living water will flow from within him” John 7:38.