An excerpt from our daily devotional. Please let us know if you would like to sign up to receive these in your email each week!
There is a hole in our lives so deep, a longing so great that can only be quenched by one thing. That is God himself.
A hole that seems to be easily masked in the longing for more of whatever earthly thing you believe will satisfy. And we all have that thing here, maybe for you, it’s your health. Or we mistake it for anxiety that’s always sitting under the surface.
But maybe that longing for more isn’t a bad feeling but a necessary one. Designed inside of us to keep us running back to the one who can fill us. Who does work to bring us energy and put life in our bodies. What if that longing we try desperately to fill is our daily reminder to keep seeking God.
Letting the longing be the reminder to go and get filled! I want to dive into John 4 because there is a lot to learn from the Samaritan woman.
THE SAMARITAN WOMAN SCHEDULED HER DAY TO AVOID HER DEEPEST PAINS.
Yet Jesus still met her!
“And he had to pass through Samaria. So he came to a town of Samaria called Sychar, near the field that Jacob had given to his son Joseph. Jacob’s well was there; so Jesus, tired from his journey, sat beside the well. It was noon.
A woman from Samaria came to draw water. Jesus said to her, “Give me a drink.” The Samaritan woman said to him, “How is it that you, a Jew, ask for a drink from me, a woman of Samaria.”
John 4:4-9
This Samaritan woman, who found herself drinking at the well with the Savior of the world, frequented this well at this hour on purpose. Samaria was a dessert town and the heat of the day was not the time to be filling up the jars of water.
But she did this. She planned her day to escape the pain of her shame. To avoid running into the other people of the village. Drawing water alone in the heat of the day could only indicate one thing. She was a social outcast.
Yet Jesus found her there.
I find so many similarities in this story to my own. So many ways I can relate to the Samaritan woman who felt like she didn’t add up. She was lost in a sea of her own brokenness. Most likely living under the assumption that there was no fix for her, she was too far gone.
Rather than confronting her reality, she planned her life to enable her to stay that way, more for safety than happiness.
Yet, there Jesus was. He was sitting by the well asking for a drink.
Jesus, the Savior of the world, asks an outcast to help him.
Indicating the reality:
- In God’s eyes, no one is too far gone.
- He has a purpose for each of us.
- He’ll never let us be alone.
- He is always right there.
The question is, are you willing to engage him.