Loved: The One who meets you

One on One in His Ministry Years—Day 19

Everyone longs to be loved by somebody—to be someone’s “person.” To many, this desperate search has cost them a world of hurt, compromise, and loss. Too easily, we transfer this rejection to our relationship with God.

If you’ve ever wondered if God could really love you, then meet Jesus at the well.

At Jacob’s Well that day in Samaria, Jesus planned a special date with, let’s call her Abby. He wanted a private conversation so He sent His men into town to get lunch. Jesus waited for her alone.

No one goes to the well in the heat of the day. We can assume Abby is either living on the bad side of a moral decision or she was deeply depressed. Maybe she couldn’t deal with the other women’s chit-chat. Whatever the reason, Abby was hurting and hiding in the margins.

She must have thought Jesus crazy for asking her for a drink—a Samaritan (a racial issue) and a woman (a social issue). They both knew she was the one dying of thirst.

She wasn’t dumb, after all. She recognized His claim right away. “Anyone who drinks the water I give will never thirst—not ever.” Messiah? Could it be? 

That’s when Jesus told her everything she had done in her search for love. Painful, private things. How do You know that? He must have answered her without any shame in His voice because for the first time, she looked up and met love. The real thing.

She gave Him water . . . He offered her Himself.

Jesus knows your soul only feels complete when you’re satisfied in Him. Only then can you find real intimacy across the dinner table or lying beside you in bed—a closeness that pictures your relationship with Him.

Too often we think we only can be loved if we measure up. A woman measures her worth by the way her body curves or doesn’t curve. A man, by how he ranks at work, by the money he makes, or by how tall or muscular he stands.

But Jesus offers you His love based on what you can choose. You can choose to believe Him. You can choose to humble yourself under His choices for your life. You can choose to be saved and safe and loved. You can choose life—fulfilled, beautiful life—by standing next to Jesus.

That’s what Abby did that day. By faith she knew she needed what He held out. She knew she needed rescue. Her story not only quenched her thirst for living water, it convinced the whole town to follow Jesus, the Messiah.

So the woman left her water jar and went away into town and said to the people, “Come, see a man who told me all that I ever did. Can this be the Christ?” They went out of the town and were coming to him. John 4:28-30

Tomorrow: One on one with Jesus and the demons

Let’s talk about it:

1.               Does it comfort you—or make you uncomfortable—that Jesus knows every detail of your story? Why?

2.               How did you feel the day that you realized that you needed saving? Did you reach out to Jesus right away or did it take a while?