Jesus was exhausted. A day spent battling the Pharisees and the never ending needs of the people, left His heart wondering if the people really understood His message. Could they see the eternal picture or were they just hungry to have their earthly desires met?
As Jesus settled at Jacob’s well in the hottest part of the day, he sent his disciples into town for food. As He looked up, he noticed a woman with her head down, laiden with a large jar, making her way to the well. How odd that this woman would come by herself in the hottest part of the day.
Jesus started his conversation with her the way he usually did with people … with a question.
“Will you give me a drink?” (John 4:7)
Bewildered the woman found herself stunned…why would this Jewish man ever speak to her… a woman and a Samaritan one at that. She had been convinced that she was less than. She was
- A woman
- A Samaritan
- One who had a less than perfect past
All of these factors would make it unacceptable in her culture for a Jewish man to speak to her.
Jesus’ response was one that caused her to stop and realize that this was not an ordinary conversation. His statements to her would be life altering.
“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.
Everyone who drinks this water will be thirsty again, but whoever drinks the water I give him will never thirst. Indeed, the water I give him will become in him a spring of water welling up to eternal life.”
(John 4:10,13-14)
- Do we know the gift that God wants to give us or do we instead seek an earthly fulfillment?
- Are we so close to God but fail to realize who He really is?
- Do we satisfy ourselves with earthly things that will never quench our true desires?
- Are we settling for less than what God wants for our lives?
- Are our lives so full of God that it completely fills us and spills out to others in our pathway?
The Samaritan woman’s story will be unwrapped more in the next few blogs. Right now though, I ask myself…
Am I filling myself with living water…God’s Spirit?
Or am I filling myself with earthly things that are leaving me dissatisfied?
