Note from Team LO: We are SO excited to bring you this month’s post from our LO sister member, Shelli Brickell! If you want to be a part of this incredible community, you can join today! Find out more about this online sisterhood HERE. And for more info about what LO sister is all about, visit our Instagram Page!

Now, enjoy today’s post from Shelli 🙂 

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Are you tirelessly seeking perfection? Is your heart aching from searching for the next best thing?  

You are not alone.  We live in a culture that is constantly focused on receiving the next best thing. We put this pressure on ourselves to be the best, have the best, look the best. We are thirsty for our lives to feel fulfilled. This constant strive for something better only leaves us worn out, unfulfilled and anxious.   

Why do we spend so much time chasing after the wrong things? What if I told you that you are spending all your time chasing something that will never fulfill your heart? That you might spend your whole life feeling how you feel right now. Thirsty.  

But what if I told you that there is a different way that you can live, and you don’t have to feel any of that? A life where you can feel fulfilled, loved and enough. A life that you can find rest and peace. A life that was so graciously gifted to you through Jesus and all that you need to do is take a drink from the living water. 

I think we can all relate in some way to the story told in John 4:1-42, where a Samaritan woman has a life-changing meeting with Jesus at the well. This woman at the well had probably hit her all-time low. We have all been there before am I right? She had been married five times and was with another man at the time. Jesus met this woman at the well and asked her for a drink of water. The woman asked Jesus how he could ask this of her because in this time women were considered inferior to men especially this woman who was a social outcast. Jesus disregarded the social barriers by speaking with her. Jesus answered her, “If you knew the gift of God, and who it is that is saying to you ‘Give me a drink,’ you would have asked him, and he would have given you living water.” This gift of living water that Jesus offered her would satisfy her soul’s deepest desires. It was the gift of eternal life.  As the conversation continued, Jesus declared to her for the first time in public that He was the Messiah! The woman believed him and immediately ran to tell everyone. 

I believe that God put this message heavy on my heart about the woman at the well because I have felt the thirst of seeking perfection. I have been on the desperate hunt for the next best thing and the only thing it brought me was extreme anxiety. I remember hitting my all-time low. I was so tired. Mentally, physically, emotionally. I felt like the woman at the well at this moment in my life. I believed in Jesus, but I had no clue what he had done for me or how much he loved me. I did not know that he was someone that I could run to for help. I still remember one hard morning out of desperation I decided to turn on worship music in the car and I remember feeling these moments of relief. Of peace. A peace that I had never felt before and I started to crave it constantly! I began listening to worship music every time I was in the car. I started reading all the self-help Christian books that I could get my hands on. One day I came across LIVE by Sadie Robertson and let me just say it was life changing! I related so much to Sadie in the sense of feeling anxious and all the pressures that life throws at us despite my deep love for Christ. I loved that this person that seemed perfect was SO relatable and honest about her struggles. She helped me learn to live in the moment that God has given me, and I am so thankful. One day last summer, my twin sister called me and said Sadie was having a LO Sister conference and we immediately decided to go! We did something we had never done before, we packed our bags and headed to West Monroe. I didn’t know that they would be baptizing at the conference, and I had been wanting to be baptized for years but it was never the right timing. After a weekend full of healing and worship, my twin sister and I made the decision to officially accept Jesus into our hearts. As we made our way closer to the front of the church, we realized they were baptizing in groups of two! My twin sister and I were baptized TOGETHER! I loved the symbolism that we entered the earthly world together and we entered our new life in Christ together. The timing could not have been more perfect.  

I am so grateful for the community that Sadie has created through LO Sister. Anytime that I need encouragement or a reminder of who I am in Christ, I immediately open my LO Sister app and I always get that reminder that I desperately need.  

So, sister the next time you find yourself in the same place as the woman at the well, I hope you know it doesn’t matter what you have done or how many mistakes you have made, He still accepts you. He is not impressed by that perfect house, perfect job or how great you look. You don’t have to put all this pressure on yourself to be the best at everything. His love for you is the same no matter where you live, what you do or what you look like. He will meet you right where you are. It took me a long time to realize that His love isn’t just for those that live their lives accordingly, it is for ALL. All are welcome, all are accepted, and all are equal. There is nothing that we can do to earn do to earn his love and we never have to do anything more than just accept his love. Once you accept him into your heart, be like the Samaritan woman and go tell everyone you know to take a drink from the living water so that they never have to be thirsty again. 

“Everyone who drinks this water will be thirsty again, but whoever drinks the water I give them will never thirst. Indeed, the water I give them will become in them a spring of water welling up to eternal life” John 4:13