Make a Difference This Summer
Three ways you can help Superbook share the Gospel with more children
“Come, see a man who told me everything I ever did. Could this be the Messiah?”.
(John 4:29, NIV)
I am aware that many of our blogs and devotionals are directed towards discipleship and deepening the faith of those who call Jesus their Saviour.
But my hope and prayer are that you – the person reading this article right now – will linger a little over the words that I share today, even if you do not know Jesus as the One who saved you.
“Do not be anxious about anything, but in every situation, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.”
At around midday, the sun was blazing hot. To consider toil in these temperatures would be cruel, and yet it is in exactly this set of circumstances that the Samaritan woman comes out of the local town of Sychar to complete the arduous task of drawing water from Jacob’s well.
Jesus, already seated and resting, makes a simple request – He asks the Samaritan woman for a drink.
This was shocking on many fronts, predominantly because Jesus was a Jewish man and the person He engaged in conversation was a Samaritan – and a woman.
This is why the Samaritan woman objects and says to Jesus:
“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.)
(John 4:9, NIV)
But Jesus’ response opens up a much deeper conversation, one that would change her life forever:
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.”
(John 4:10, NIV)
The conversation continues on in both a practical (on the woman’s side) and a deeper, more spiritual (on Jesus’ side) direction.
But the Samaritan woman’s world stands still when Jesus utters a profound statement:
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.”
(John 4:17-18, NIV)
There was no rational way that Jesus could have known this about her.
He did not live alongside her and witness these truths.
So, He must be a Prophet, right?
This was the Samaritan woman’s only guess. It was all she had.
Little did she know that there was not a single thing about her that this man in front of her did not know.
He knew that she had been rejected by the other townsfolk and that that was the reason she had to come and draw water in the heat of the day.
He knew that she had given herself away five times to five different men.
He knew that she was living in sin, with a man she was not married to.
And yet, still, He extended a relationship towards her.
He tore down the walls that separated her and God, assuring her that she need only worship the Father in Spirit and in Truth to be deemed worthy of closeness with her Creator.
My friend, I do not draw out the details of this story to bore you or to prove any particular point.
I simply want you to know that the God who knew everything about this rejected, isolated Samaritan woman, knows everything about you too.
And He loves you.
He knows all about the things that you have done wrong – the white lies all the way to the darker offenses.
None of us are perfect before God, far from it.
And yet, He extends that same invitation to you – an invitation into relationship with the One who loves you perfectly.
What will you do with that truth today?
Will you reject, ignore or pass by this chance to be loved perfectly?
Or will you step into this living relationship?
One way or another we all must make this choice. I pray you make the choice that gives you living water and eternal life.
