Who is Jesus Inviting You to Become?
Week Five: Come-to-Jesus Meeting
“Go call your husband,” he told her, “and come back here.” “I don’t have a husband,” she answered. “You have correctly said, ‘I don’t have a husband,’” Jesus said. “For you’ve had five husbands, and the man you now have is not your husband. What you have said is true.” (John 4:16-18)
Before you think that perhaps this devotional can’t possibly be about you, let me reassure you that it is. Because, deep within each of us there is a thirst that God placed in us for Himself. A thirst we are longing for. A thirst that the love of Jesus pursues. A thirst that the enemy wants to quench so he can use us and get back at Jesus.
Thirsty people are vulnerable. We think that if we drink water from the right job, right relationship, right fitness to get the right body, right church, right home, right business, right car, right appearance, right degrees, right wine, right identity, right whatever fills your bucket, we will be happy and satisfied.
I often wonder if the friends of the woman at the well or someone from her hometown cared enough or was not afraid to engage in a conversation with her about her thirst. A thirst that had her going from well to well giving herself away sexually to man after man.
Jesus loved the woman at the well too much to let her continue to draw water from the wrong wells. She was looking for love but missing the One who put the desire for true love in her in the first place.
The Samaritan woman comes to the well to draw water when her water runs out and she is thirsty. Quenching her thirst is a constant chore to haul water back and forth. Although she wasn’t sure what the living water was, she asks for the water which Jesus offered. Maybe she thought this living water would make her life easier. Not knowing it would be what her heart was truly thirsty for.
This week, Jesus takes their conversation to a deeper level by having a come-to-Jesus meeting to reveal a thirst within her that only He can quench.
The dictionary defines a come-to-Jesus meeting as: a spiritual meeting in which participants are encouraged to repent of their sins and accept Jesus Christ as Savior, and any meeting in which a frank, often unpleasant, conversation is held so as to bring light and/or resolve some issue at hand.
Both meanings resonate with the woman at the well. In answering the unnamed woman’s request for living water, in verse 16, Jesus said to the woman, “Go call your husband,” he told her, “and come back here.”
The woman at the well had to be feeling some kind of way about the abrupt change in their conversation. A conversation that went from discussing living water to her marital status.
Astonished, she didn’t address Jesus as she had done previously by saying “Sir”. Neither was she as talkative as she had been. You could hear in her voice how uncomfortable she was in answering Jesus’ request.
“I don’t have a husband,” she answered (verse 17a).
Why is your thirst uncomfortable to share with Jesus?
In what ways has Jesus been pursuing you to lovingly confront you about your thirst, but you’ve pushed his coming-to-Jesus meeting aside?
What person, bible study, church service, or your current circumstance has Jesus been inviting you to meet him to recognize and acknowledge your thirst?
“You have correctly said, ‘I don’t have a husband,’” Jesus said. “For you’ve had five husbands, and the man you now have is not your husband. What you have said is true.” (Verses 17b-18).
Jesus knew the woman’s thirst and spoke right to it. Her thirst needed to be brought out in the open. He knew that he had to reveal her sin to expose the thirst that maybe she didn’t even know she had.
It is hard for us to recognize our thirst for water when we have substituted water with other things to drink. Likewise, it is hard to know our hearts are thirsting for Jesus when we drink from other wells.
What are the thirsts that is keeping you from Jesus? Usually you can identify your thirst by looking outwardly at what makes you feel happy, content or satisfied.
I am thirsty for: _______________________________.
I am thirsty for: _______________________________.
I am thirsty for: _______________________________.
Regardless of your marital status—single, married, divorced, or widowed—trying to satisfy your deepest thirst with the romance of a man will not work. (Engaged is a beautiful thing; but if you are engaged, your status is single).
Be honest with yourself, how is trying to satisfy your thirst for love and romance working for you? Is it pleasing to Jesus?
Why are Christians compromising their beliefs about living in a sinful relationship with a man outside of marriage or having sex outside of marriage?
How significant is it for the times we live in today for Jesus to include in the conversation with the woman at the well that “the man you now have is not your husband”?
In Jeremiah 2:13, the Lord declares, “My people have committed two sins: They have forsaken me, the spring of living water, and have dug their own cisterns, broken cisterns that cannot hold water.”
How have you forsaken the Lord, the spring of living water?
How have you dug your own cisterns, broken cisterns that cannot hold water?
Write out Revelation 22:17.
Dear Jesus: We realize that without true confession there is no transformation. Thank you, Holy Spirit, for leading us in your truth though often we have turned away. Forgive us Lord. We have another window of opportunity to turn to you to allow you to quench our thirst. Thank you for godly people in our lives that love us enough to pray for us and tell us that you have more for us than the wrong wells we’ve been drinking from. Today we are confessing our thirst and surrendering the cisterns that we have dug ourselves. Jesus, give us the living water that you offer so we will never thirst again. We invite you into our becoming.
Is Jesus wanting to meet you in the places you thirst through this devotional? The waiting list for life coaching sessions for this life-changing series—7 Week Become Journey—will open up again the end of September.
Book a free 30-minute Clarity Call to discuss how Jesus wants to be invited into your becoming.
If you don’t see a time that fits your schedule, send me an email at info@becomingmorebeautiful.com to let me know some dates and times you are available.
Can’t wait to talk with you!
- Debbie