So He left Judea and went back once more to Galilee. Now He had to go through Samaria. So He came to a town in Samaria called Sychar, near the plot of the 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 noon. When a Samaritan woman came to draw water, Jesus said to her, “Will you give me a drink?”
John 4:3-7
How many times have you experienced being so worn out from the journey?
The journey of life, work, home, health, ministry, projects, plans, goals, marriage, relationships and all other business that can wear and tear on a person from moment to moment.
Jesus in all His anointing and supernatural power comes to a halt on His journey because He was weary. But in His weariness He uses this opportunity to minister to the life of another person who was also worn out spiritually.
This woman doesn’t have a name. But it doesn’t even matter because this is a woman that describes you and me. She describes humanity. However, the emphasis that I want to bring with this passage is the time that Jesus sat down from His weariness. The bible points out the time that this woman went to go draw water.
It was in the middle of the day.
It gets so hot in Samaria by the afternoon, that water was typically drawn early in the morning! That would have been the smart thing to do for this woman. But she doesn’t do that. Nothing that she had done in her life was wise at this point of her life. God uses this hour of the day to illustrate such a miracle to us all.
He does it in broad daylight! He uses this opportunity to bring a woman at the feet of the Savior to take a drink that will never ever again leave her running on empty.
How are those moments for you when you find yourself running on empty?
In the middle of the day.
In the middle of the journey.
In the middle of the miracle.
I am reflecting on how I even got to this moment of my life. How I thought in all my years of learning, working, building and planting that it would lead me to a place of utter loss.
In the middle of my journey, I need a miracle. In the middle of the day for me I can’t help but feel doubt, anger, confusion, frustration, embarrassment and shame for having failed at something that I thought was going to take us to the next level of success.
Yes –because this wasn’t even just about me. It is for my whole family and those I impact daily.
Wow! What a turnaround moment for me. What a detour.
At this time I have been searching in the Word in such a way, so meticulously at the lives of Joseph, Moses and also –this nameless woman at the well. That is me today. Someone nameless, jobless, hopeless, restless and feeling oh so useless!
What am I going to do now but wait upon the Lord. Knowing that in the middle of this mess! In the middle of this less! In the middle of this lesson–the miracle has already been given to me.
I don’t know if you are finding yourself in the same situation as me–somewhere in the middle point of life. In the pivotal connecting points to the “next place” of your WHOLE life. But I am being purposed now to remind not only myself but you–that we are in the middle of the miracle we need! We are in it! It has already been waiting there all along.
It takes the detours of life to let us know, much like this woman at the well who was on her 6th bad relationship, that she didn’t need another man.
Those men were never going to be the source of her strength! But HE WAS!
That job is not the source of my strength –HE IS!
The money is not the source of my strength –HE IS!
That ministry is not the source of my strength –HE IS!
The kids are not the source of my strength –HE IS!
All the things we think are what we need to have our miracle, to have our success and victory is not the source. All of that waiting in the middle, we already have everything we need to sustain us.
The middle of our miracle is HIM! It has always been Him and it will always be. For the moment we find ourselves in the middle of our day, the middle of our journey, the middle of relationships, the middle of our miracle — always reaching to the thing that will never sustain us–it wont be long before we experience that less so that we find the most through God.
Being stripped of what we love is some serious stuff. But being stripped of the One that will always sustain us –is everything.
That middle –that center of everything –is the miracle. It is Jesus. The source of all things. The source of life. The source of companionship. The source of energy. The source of strength. Give it all to Him as you are waiting in this moment and you find yourself in the middle just like me…
He is the way, the truth and life.
Jesus answered and said to her, “Whoever drinks of this water will thirst again, but whoever drinks of the water that I shall give him will never thirst. But the water that I shall give him will become in him a fountain of water springing up into everlasting life.”
John 4:13-14
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