“Lord I’m Tired. I Thirst Too.“
“Jesus, tired from the long walk, sat wearily beside the well about noontime. Soon a Samaritan woman came to draw water, and Jesus said to her, “Please give me a drink.””
John 4:1-7 NLT
Tired. Weary. Alone. Empty. Thirsty.
All of these words I have felt many times before, as I’m sure you have too. Today in Part 1 of “Who Am I, I AM”, I want to break down the story of the Samaritan woman who Jesus met at the well. I want to express how much significance this story has for me during this season of my life.
Jesus was on a long journey. He was walking back to Galilee, and “happened” to pass through Samaria. I put quotations around the word happened because how many times in our life do we feel like God is the last minute God? How many times do we feel we have begged God to show up, say SOMETHING, and we fail to see that we are right where He needed us to be for us to truly Hear Him? So Jesus decided to sit down at this well ALONE. John points out that Jesus HAD to go through Samaria. Jesus was a Jewish man which in most cases would have been thought to hate the Samaritans, as they had for over 400 years. But not Jesus. Jesus had a greater purpose that day.
As Jesus is sitting at the well alone in the middle of the day, a Samaritan woman meets Him at the well. Most women would come to the well in the morning before it got too hot, but not this woman. She was seen as an outcast in her home town because of her mistakes and the life of sin she was living in. She approaches the well, tired, embarrassed, defeated, and thirsty of more than what anything of this life could provide her. Her soul THIRST!
Jesus, not only seen as a Rabbi but also a man in the flesh, should have cast her away. But He did quite the opposite. Jesus asks her for a drink. What would your expression or thought be if Jesus Himself asked you for a drink? The Samaritan woman’s response is similar to what I may have said. She says to Jesus, “You are a Jew, and I am a Samaritan woman. Why are you asking me for a drink?”John 4:9 NLT
Jesus looks at her and says, “If you only knew the gift God has for you and who you are speaking to, you would ask me, and I would give you living water.”
John 4:10 NLT
I want to stop right here for a moment and tie this story back to my life and I’m sure yours at times. During this season in my life I was very tired. I had carried so many burdens on my own since I was young. I had learned that I didn’t want to put my burdens on those around me and have them hurt the way I hurt. So I played super-hero everything. Or so I thought. The one thing I didn’t do is turn those burdens over to God. I tried to carry them alone. I had an amazing family, an amazing husband, an amazing group of friends, but I carried it alone. Eventually that weakened me. I thought I was so close to God yet I didn’t trust him enough with my life. I had to be the best daughter, the best sister, the best employee, the best wife, the best mom, the best friend… but I forgot to be God’s. I allowed my codependency to become the enemy’s weapon to pull me away from God, away from those I loved, in search of a filling that only God could provide. I wanted someone to rescue me, but not God. I wanted someone to make me “happy”, but not God. I wanted someone to tell me who I was, but not God. Not the one that loved me most. The one that made me and who chose me before I even existed. I would say “What about ME God? Does my happiness not matter?”. Not realizing where my true Joy came from. Him and Him alone. I was like this Samaritan woman, who was looking in all the wrong places for validation and a quenching to her thirst. And like her, I outcast myself. See I thought people abandoned me, but in reality God just called me into a place of aloneness with Him and only Him. But He knew I had to be desperate and at my lowest before I would humble myself and trust.
Jesus goes on to say to the Samaritan woman, “Anyone who drinks this water will soon become thirsty again. But those who drink the water I give will never be thirsty again. It becomes a fresh, bubbling spring within them, giving them eternal life.”
John 4:13-14 NLT
Anything else, other than the living water that Jesus had for her would always be empty and temporary. It would not be filling and fully satisfying. He knew what she needed but she didn’t. She was at her rock bottom but she didn’t realize she was made for greater. That she was called for a higher purpose than just to be a wife or a Samaritan woman. Jesus for the first time in scripture identifies Himself to her as the I AM. He tells her all the things she thought were hidden behind the mask she wore. It is then that she realizes He is who He says He is. The Messiah. In Part 2, I will expand on who God says that I AM. Who He says you are. But we must first just soak in the significance of this encounter.
We all have sinned. We all have fallen short of the Kingdom of God, yet He wants us. He wants us to know Him. He wants us to experience His unconditional Grace and Love. He wants us to know that even when we stray off of the path He has meant for us, He will leave the 99 for us. He will go sit at the well and wait, until we are ready to fully surrender and drink of the water that never goes dry. Being alone is something I always feared. Yet it is in that lonely place that I found God again. I found the one that had been there all along just waiting. Waiting on me to lay down my heavy burdens and TRUST Him with all that I am and all that I have.
Are you ready? Is there something in your life that you are ashamed of or that you feel has been weighing you down for so long, but you didn’t want anyone to know because of fear of seeming weak? Trust me, the strongest moment of your life will be when you look up and realize that you have the Lord of Lords on your team. Who can defeat you when you have the armor of Christ on your shoulders? Why search the world for acceptance and validation when the maker of all things gifts you with purpose and greatness? Everything else will be empty. Trust Him. Don’t wait. You weren’t meant to live in the shallows of life. You were meant to go deep and conquer giants.
The Trenches of the Kingdom 