God
is so good. I love how personal and intimate He is, how He speaks to
our hearts, and for His perfect timing. This was
so evident to me this past week. Last Sunday at church, we looked at
John 4 the story of the woman at the well. God really spoke to my
heart through this story. Then later in the week, my friend and I
watched the next Beth Moore video in our Bible study. The session was
on John 4. The woman at the well. Wow...my heart felt so loved by God.
That He had a specific message for me and that He cares about every
detail of my life. My friend and I had planned to watch this video
weeks ago but our plans were postponed. How good to know that God's
plans and timing, in the big and small things in our life, is the
best.
The
full story is below. A Samaritan woman came to draw water at noontime
and she had an encounter with Jesus. Why did she go at noon and not
in the morning with all the other women? Because of her story, her
past, and what others thought and said about her. For she had five
different husbands and the man she was living with was not her
husband. In that culture and in those days, there was shame
associated with such a past. It was easier for her to go to the well
at noon and avoid gossiping women who looked down at her with shame
and condemnation.
Her
encounter with Jesus is so radical and profound. For Jesus knew her
story. Her full story. He looked upon her and knew her past, her
every mistake, He saw her heart. She was fully exposed before Jesus,
yet she did not leave His presence condemned and ashamed. No, she
went back to town and said “come and see a man who told me
everything I ever did. Could this be the Messiah?” This woman went
from avoiding others because of her past to going out and saying this
man told me everything I did.
What
was the difference in her encounter with Jesus? When we come into the
presence of Jesus we are fully exposed. He looks upon us and sees
everything, all of our depravity and brokenness. There is nothing
hidden in His sight. He sees our heart. Yet, there is such a radical
love, acceptance, and security in His presence. That even after being
confronted with the truth of our brokenness, we leave with such
dignity. This woman should have left feeling even more ashamed,
guilty, condemned. Yet instead she left the presence of Jesus with a
sense of dignity, love, and acceptance. Before she wanted to hide her
broken past, yet after her encounter with Jesus, she is free.
Our
society and our human nature tells us to do the same. We want others
to see a good picture of ourselves. We want to hide our brokenness.
For it is not safe to share our brokenness, for with that comes
judgment from others. How they view us may change. Yet the incredible
thing about Jesus is that we are never more fully exposed yet never
more fully loved and accepted. And His love and acceptance then gives
us the freedom to share about our past. For our past and our
brokenness is no longer about us, it is now God's story. His story of
how He came into our lives and our hearts to bring freedom, love and
acceptance. Our past and our story is now one to point others to God.
To give God glory. Because of this woman's excitement to share
“Come, see a man who told me everything I ever did. Could this be
the Messiah?” many people came to Jesus and believed in Him.
What
did Jesus offer this woman? Living Water. We all seek something or
someone to satisfy us. Yet, nothing truly fills that void. We are
left wanting more and more. For this woman it was men. For each of
us, it may be something different. Yet, apart from Christ we are left
wanting more and more. The excess we seek only reveals the emptiness
of our soul. Which only leads to bondage and to disaster in our
lives. The solution: Christ offered this woman and offers each of us
Living Water. He offers us Himself- His Spirit. He offers us not just
life, but life abundant.
“On
the last and greatest day of the festival, Jesus stood and said in a
loud voice “Let anyone who is thirsty come to me and drink. Whoever
believes in me, as Scripture has said, rivers of living water will
flow from within them.” By this he meant the Spirit, whom those who
believed in him were later to receive.” John 7:37-39
One
last thought. Anything that I seek in excess ultimately is not good
for me. Even good things in excess become an idol as they become more
important in my life than my relationship with God. Yet, Jesus is the
one thing- the one person- that I can seek in excess. I can long for
more of Him. I can pursue more of Him. I can always go deeper into
His love. There is always more to discover of who He is. Desperation
can be a very good thing when I am desperate for God.
“but
if from thence you shall seek the Lord your God, you shall find Him,
if you seek Him with all of your heart and soul.” Deut. 4:29
I love the song “The More I Seek You” by Kari Jobe as it's a beautiful picture of
this truth.
The
more I seek you,
The
more I find you,
The
more I find you,
the more I love you
I wanna sit at your
feet
drink from the cup in your hand.
Lay back against you and
breath,
hear your heart beat
This love is so deep,
it's
more than I can stand.
I melt in your peace, it's overwhelming.
Now
he had to go through Samaria. So he came to a town in Samaria called
Sychar, near the plot of ground Jacob had given to his son Joseph.
Jacob’s well was there, and Jesus, tired as he was from the
journey, sat down by the well. It was about noon.
When
a Samaritan woman came to draw water, Jesus said to her, “Will you
give me a drink?” (His disciples had gone into the town to buy
food.)
The
Samaritan woman said to him, “You are a Jew and I am a Samaritan
woman. How can you ask me for a drink?” (For Jews do not associate
with Samaritans.)
Jesus
answered her, “If you knew the gift of God and who it is that asks
you for a drink, you would have asked him and he would have given you
living water.”
“Sir,”
the woman said, “you have nothing to draw with and the well is
deep. Where can you get this living water? Are you greater than our
father Jacob, who gave us the well and drank from it himself, as did
also his sons and his livestock?”
Jesus
answered, “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.”
The
woman said to him, “Sir, give me this water so that I won’t get
thirsty and have to keep coming here to draw water.”
He
told her, “Go, call your husband and come back.”
“I
have no husband,” she replied.
Jesus
said to her, “You are right when you say you have no husband. The
fact is, you have had five husbands, and the man you now have is not
your husband. What you have just said is quite true.”
“Sir,”
the woman said, “I can see that you are a prophet. Our ancestors
worshiped on this mountain, but you Jews claim that the place where
we must worship is in Jerusalem.”
“Woman,”
Jesus replied, “believe me, a time is coming when you will worship
the Father neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem. You Samaritans
worship what you do not know; we worship what we do know, for
salvation is from the Jews. Yet a time is coming and has now come
when the true worshipers will worship the Father in the Spirit and in
truth, for they are the kind of worshipers the Father seeks. God is
spirit, and his worshipers must worship in the Spirit and in truth.”
The
woman said, “I know that Messiah” (called Christ) “is coming.
When he comes, he will explain everything to us.”
Then
Jesus declared, “I, the one speaking to you—I am he.”
Just
then his disciples returned and were surprised to find him talking
with a woman. But no one asked, “What do you want?” or “Why are
you talking with her?”
Then,
leaving her water jar, the woman went back to the town and said to
the people, “Come, see a man who told me everything I ever did.
Could this be the Messiah?” They came out of the town and made
their way toward him.
Meanwhile
his disciples urged him, “Rabbi, eat something.”
But
he said to them, “I have food to eat that you know nothing about.”
Then
his disciples said to each other, “Could someone have brought him
food?”
“My
food,” said Jesus, “is to do the will of him who sent me and to
finish his work. Don’t you have a saying, ‘It’s still four
months until harvest’? I tell you, open your eyes and look at the
fields! They are ripe for harvest. Even now the one who reaps draws a
wage and harvests a crop for eternal life, so that the sower and the
reaper may be glad together. Thus the saying ‘One sows and another
reaps’ is true. I sent you to reap what you have not worked for.
Others have done the hard work, and you have reaped the benefits of
their labor.”
Many
of the Samaritans from that town believed in him because of the
woman’s testimony, “He told me everything I ever did.” So when
the Samaritans came to him, they urged him to stay with them, and he
stayed two days. And because of his words many more became believers.
They
said to the woman, “We no longer believe just because of what you
said; now we have heard for ourselves, and we know that this man
really is the Savior of the world.”
