Jesus “Secret Stuff”

God Gold of the Day

John 4:10-11/ Jesus replied, “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.”  “But sir, you don’t have a rope or a bucket,” she said, “and this well is very deep. Where would you get this living water?

After spending a few days learning about WWJD and how to apply the example of Christ to our lives, it was too hard reading verses 10 and 11 in the story of the woman at the well and limit these truths to one thing. In a way the lesson I learned today is from what Jesus did but more importantly, it’s what Jesus says that is so huge. Just a little background to set the scene, Jesus is in enemy territory (Samaria), sitting at a well and when a Samaritan woman comes up to grab her a ice cold bottle of water, Jesus asks her for a drink. The woman is in shock that Jesus, a Jew, would much less be in the same area but speak to her, a Samaritan, who was looked down upon by the Jewish people during this time. After trying to wrap her head around this unlikely and weird situation, Jesus responds to her questions about His openness and love towards her and look at what He says.

What Jesus says here may not make a lot of sense, I even thought what in the world is living water, like can water be alive? Is Jesus not talking about that fresh Disani water you get from the well and I’m with the woman here, how’s He plan on getting this water from a deep well without any tools? This woman’s reaction is exactly what mine would be because in my human eyes, this doesn’t make a lot of sense. It’s crazy how much of God”s Word sounds wild and crazy, sometimes it’s really hard to understand the truth in it, but majority of the time it’s because we immediately resort to our means and resources of seeing it the way we want it. That doesn’t help much if we have a relationship with the Lord and when we read what He’s literally speaking to us, we don’t spend time to see Him as speaking and Him as the Word. It’s hard to treat the truths found in God’s Word and the time we spend in reading it and not try to read it like any other book. The thing is, it’s by far not just any other book so this was a big reminder for me to be more intentional about that time in the Word knowing that with every word, God is speaking to me, teaching me something about myself and most importantly about Him. Just like anything else we do in life, when we operate out of our strength and our lack of knowledge, we are putting aside the importance of our intimate relationship with the Lord. Even in Seminary classes, I don’t have a clue to understanding the ways of Christ and the Word. Something I’ve done for years and something I still do is go into the Word, prayer, or any moment spent with Christ and just glance at it thinking “oh that’s good stuff.” Then I go about my day like nothing happened. What I usually realize during my day when I’ve just been glancing at my relationship with Christ is that I feel like I’m running on fumes, the struggles, temptation, and trials that come up easily tear me up and I definitely don’t have a lot of Joy.

This woman at the well is meeting Christ for the first time so she obviously doesn’t have a clue about Who He is or what He’s capable of. Of course, she’s going to answer in this way acting like Jesus is speaking in another language. What really hit my heart was the fact that I know Jesus personally and know that He’s capable of literally anything but here I sit, daily asking the same questions to Him as I so easily forget WHO it is I am talking to and living with. It’s hard to think of how often I do this but also relating to this women again, I doubt in the midst of conversation she really looked deeply into Who she was talking to and the words He spoke. She was glancing at Christ and His Word. I try so hard to make sense of Jesus, my relationship with Him, and God’s Word but in my human thinking and terms, He’ll never make sense because His ways our so much higher than ours. So when I heard living water my first thought was regular water. To get regular, plain, normal water, we go to the store and buy it in large quantities. Maybe aquafina or disani, whatever your preference, you have to do something to get it just like this woman thinks the only way to get this water Jesus is speaking of is to lower a bucket down in the well on a rope and pull it up. The truth is we don’t have to do anything because if you have salvation in the name of Christ, that loving relationship with Him, He’s already offered and given you living water. The part we get wrong because it’s what makes sense to us is He’s given us this out His grace and love, we didn’t have to go to the store, put our bucket down in the well, we didn’t have to do anything.

In tomorrow’s God Gold we’re going to look at what Jesus means by living water but today it’s all about the opportunity and the blessing of knowing Christ personally. And Who Christ is, the One who has given us life and life eternally, the One who gives us this living water. It’s been such a huge lesson for me to not just glance at these verses and get what I want from them, but to really look at them and look deeply, intensely at what Jesus is saying here, what this woman’s response means to me. Jesus basically tells her, if you only knew then you wouldn’t be asking these questions. The same goes for us, when we come to Jesus asking things of Him, when we respond to His answers and His words trying so hard to do something on our own to achieve what we want instead of just trusting in Him, trusting in Who He is. Our relationship begins and ends with our identity with Christ. I fight my identity everyday, trying to be someone I’m not or who the world tells me I should be but the foundation of my life and my true identity is in Christ. Jesus Christ, the Son of God, Who is God in the flesh. He came down to earth, walked as we walked, making Himself available to such a weak and sinful people, knowing that without His sacrifice on the cross and raising from the grave, we would remain a defeated people to sin and death. Christ made the sacrifice for our sins, He was resurrected from the grave on the third day and in His raising to new life was victory! After walking out His life on this earth, enduring temptation and the sorrows of this world, He walked perfect not falling once. He was the living example of victory over sins and in His resurrection He was the victory over death. So in His resurrection and victory He broke the chains of the life of slavery to sin and the death we deserved so we too could be raised up from our old life and into the newness and fullness of Christ. He gave us life and life eternally. In this life with Christ He has given us victory over sin so we don’t have to walk in our desires of our flesh but so we can truly live in freedom with our hope in that victory. Jesus did all this so we could lay our sins at His feet while the His blood washes our sin debt clean to the Father. He’s our mediator to God, giving us access to the creator of all, the Holy, loving, and only God. With our lives in Jesus’s salvation and victory we have freedom, freedom to live in this world without a worry or insecurity about our struggles or bad circumstances because we have Him by our side and we have the hope of eternity with Him after this life is over. Jesus is the King of Kings, our deliverer, our victory, the always loving and always faithful Savior that gave up everything so in return He could give it all to us.

Knowing the gift that God has for you and Who Jesus Christ is, that is the root of our salvation in Him. He’s the foundation on which we build our lives and I’m not a construction person but it seems like to make sure we have a strong foundation. All we can do is sit back and really look deeply at Him, look into Who He is, the gift He’s given us, studying Him, seeking Him to learn more about Who He is, what He is speaking to us, and learning more about His heart. Jesus Christ is the secret in “Jesus’ secret stuff.” Sent a link at the beginning with the Space Jam scene where they drink Micheal’s special stuff. What better way to prepare to drink Jesus’s living water than defeating the Monstars and dunking on the enemy? Hope it hypes you up for learning about Living Water in tomorrow’s gold!!!