REFLECTION

A Woman at a Well...

"REFLECTIONS" pages are encouragement for you taken directly from Scripture.  We invite you to let these truths sink down deep inside you, and to begin to know, understand and feel Comfort directly from our Father in heaven, designed especially for you and where you are at in life!  Please take time for the Pause, Reflect and Receive at the end of every REFLECTION.

… 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 the sixth hour.  (John 4and following, NIV)
 
JESUS WAS TIRED, HOT AND THIRSTY FROM HIS LONG WALK, AND HE WAS IN A FOREIGN TERRITORY (Samaria) AS WELL.  HOW MIGHT YOU HAVE FELT IF YOU WERE HIM? 
 
When a Samaritan woman came to draw water, Jesus said to her, “Will you give me a drink”?  The Samaritan woman said to him, “You are a Jew and I am a Samaritan.  How can you ask me for a drink?”  (For Jews do not associate with Samaritans.)
 
THE WOMAN CAME AROUND NOON, IN THE HEAT OF THE DAY, MOST PROBABLY ALONE.  ALL THE OTHER WOMEN CAME EARLY IN THE MORNING.  WHAT DOES THIS FACT MEAN?  MIGHT SHE HAVE REGULARLY FELT “ALONE”?
 
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.”
 
WHEN JESUS SAID THE WORD “KNEW”, AND THE PHRASE “WHO IT IS”, WHAT DID HE MEAN?  WAS THIS AN INTELLECTUAL KNOWLEDGE, OR A PERSONAL (FRIENDSHIP) KNOWLEDGE?
 
DID SHE HAVE ANY CLUE WHAT GOD COULD DO FOR HER?  DID SHE THINK HER MIXED-UP LIFE COULD HAVE ANY VALUE, OR COULD BE TURNED AROUND?  HOW DO YOU THINK SHE VALUED HERSELF?
 
WHAT CONDITIONS DID JESUS ESTABLISH FOR HER TO OBTAIN THIS LIVING WATER?
 
“Sir,” the woman said, “you have nothing to draw water 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 flocks and herds?”
 
HOW MANY TIMES DO WE “OUTREASON” GOD, AND EXPLAIN WHY SOME THINGS JUST CANNOT HAPPEN?
 
Jesus answered, “Everyone who drinks from this water will be thirsty again, but whoever drinks the water I give will never thirst.  Indeed, the water I give him will become in him 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.”
 
THE WOMAN STILL HAD NO CLUE WHERE THE CONVERSATION WAS GOING, AND WAS IN ERROR IN HER THINKING, BUT WAS INTRIGUED IN WHATEVER “LIVING WATER” WAS.
 
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.”
 
DIVORCE WAS HIGHLY FROWNED ON IN THAT SOCIETY.  SO, HOW DID SHE FIT IN?  IF SHE HAD RELATIVES NEARBY, WHAT DID THEY THINK OF HER?  WHAT DID THE TOWNSPEOPLE THINK OF HER?  WHAT DO YOU SUPPOSE FIVE EX-HUSBANDS WERE SAYING ABOUT THIS WOMAN?  NOTICE SHE WASN’T MARRIED IN THIS 6TH RELATIONSHIP ….. MIGHT SHE JUST HAVE GIVEN UP ON MARRIAGE, AND ON HOPE?  MIGHT SHE HAVE HIT ROCKBOTTOM?
 
CAN’T YOU ALMOST HEAR THIS WOMAN BELIEVING SATAN’S LIES AND REPEATING THEM OVER AND OVER IN HER HEAD?
 
God does not love me.
He does not see me.
God is not for me.
I am alone.
I am not worthy to receive love.
I am ineffective and my life has no meaning.
 
“Sir,” the woman said, “I can see that you are a prophet.  Our fathers worshiped on this mountain, but you Jews claim that the place we must worship is in Jerusalem.”
 
SOMETIMES “THEOLOGY” AND “RELIGION” ARE EASIER TO TALK ABOUT THAN WHAT IS REALLY GOING ON IN OUR LIFE, SO SHE QUICKLY CHANGED THE SUBJECT. 
 
Jesus declared, “Believe me, woman, the time is coming when you will worship the Father neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem.   …yet a time is coming when true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth, for they are the kind of worshipers the Father seeks.  God is spirit, and his worshipers must worship in spirit and in truth.”  The woman said, “I know that Messiah (called Christ) is coming.  When he comes, he will explain everything to us.”
 
NOTICE SHE HAD SOME IDEA OF WHAT “RELIGION” TAUGHT ABOUT THE MESSIAH.  DO YOU SUPPOSE SHE EVER THOUGHT THE MESSIAH WOULD WANT A VERY PERSONAL RELATIONSHIP WITH HER, IN PARTICULAR?  IN HER MIND, WHAT APPEAL WOULD SHE HAVE HAD TO GOD; OR, WHY IN THE WORLD WOULD GOD CARE ABOUT AN EMOTIONAL WRECK, A SOCIAL OUTCAST, SOMEONE NOT WELCOMED ANYWHERE IN OR EVEN NEAR THE TEMPLE?
 
Then Jesus declared, “I who speak to you am he.”
 
WHAT???  THE GOD IN THE SCRIPTURES ACTUALLY SPEAKS TO US?  NO, IT CAN’T BE.  GOD WOULD SURELY TALK TO THE TEMPLE LEADERS, AND NOT EVEN NOTICE SOMEONE WHOSE LIFE WAS A SHAMBLES.
 
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 Christ?”  They came out of the town and made their way toward him.  … 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.
 
JOHN 4:4-26, 28-30, 39-41 (NIV)
 
THE PURPOSE OF HER VISITING THE WELL WAS TO OBTAIN WATER, BUT SHE LEFT HER WATER JAR THERE.  WHY?  WHAT MUST THE LEVEL OF EXCITEMENT (EVEN DISBELIEF) IN THIS JESUS SHE HAD JUST MET?  WHAT MIGHT HER LEVEL OF HOPE HAVE BEEN?
 
WHEN SHE SAID THAT JESUS TOLD HER EVERYTHING SHE EVER DID, MIGHT THAT HAVE BEEN IN A STRICT, DEMEANING TONE, PILING ON THE GUILT, OR ….. MIGHT JESUS HAVE EXPLAINED THE DEEPER REASONS WHY SHE HAD DONE THE THINGS SHE DID, WHY HER LIFE TURNED OUT THE WAY IT DID.
 
 
MIGHT HE HAVE TALKED TO HER IN SUCH GENTLE, ENCOURAGING, PERSONAL AND UNDERSTANDING TONES THAT SHE COULDN’T HELP BUT FEEL GUILT LEAVING HER AND HOPE COMING TO HER?
 
 
THINK ABOUT HOW THIS WOMAN WAS CHANGED THROUGH MEETING JESUS.  SHE WAS A CHANGED PERSON.  SIMILARLY, WHAT CHANGES MAY BE IN STORE FOR YOU AS YOU TALK TO JESUS AND HEAR HIS VOICE MORE AND MORE EACH DAY?

PAUSE, REFLECT AND RECEIVE everything Jesus would say to you in the same way!


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