What Jesus said next…

Jesus, in conversation with the Samaritan woman at the well, was breaking all the rules. He had crossed the line of acceptable Jewish social behaviour, “for the Jews have no dealings with the Samaritans” (John 4:9 KJV).

Like the woman, many people have no dealings with Jesus. In actual fact it’s not natural for any of us to have dealings with Jesus, and that’s the root of many of our problems. We all have inherent needs that we believe can be satisfied by a carnal solution, we do not recognize that these needs are not grounded in the physical but are deeply rooted in the spiritual.

The Samaritan woman did not understand that, and neither do we. We feel a yearning, a thirst for something but just cannot put our finger on it; we do not know what it is that we truly need and more than that we do not know the One who alone can satisfy that need. Like Martha, in Luke 10:42, we don’t see that “only one thing is needful”. 

That day at the well, the woman took everything that was said to her literally, using human reasoning to grasp what Jesus said next...

“Jesus answered her, If you had only known and had recognized God’s gift and Who this is that is saying to you, Give Me a drink, you would have asked Him [instead] and He would have given you living water.” – John 4:10 (AMPC)

Indeed if we genuinely know God and recognize His indescribable gift and His beloved Son, in whom that gift may be received, we would be the ones asking Him to give to us instead. We would be reaching out to Him for that which only He can give – His living water. 

The beginning of the Samaritan woman’s transformation and ours starts with the realization that we are desperately in need of something so much greater than our carnal minds could imagine. When we realize that nothing and no-one but Jesus can satisfy that yearning and thirst in us, is when we realize our need for Jesus and cry out, “how then can You provide living water? Where do You get Your living water?” (John 4:11 AMPC).

Amen†

What Jesus said next…

Shelley Johnson March 20, 2017