John 4 Devotional

Fully Known and Still Sought

“But whoever drinks the water I give him will never thirst. Indeed, the water I give him will become in him a fount of water springing up to eternal life.””John 4:14 (BSB)

Jesus is tired from the road when he sits down at Jacob's well and asks a Samaritan woman for a drink (4:6-7). She asks how a Jew could ask her for a drink (4:9). He tells her that if she knew who was speaking to her, she would be the one asking, and he would give her living water, a spring within her that wells up to eternal life (4:10-14). Then he names her history plainly: five husbands, and the man she lives with now is not her husband (4:18). He knows everything, and he keeps offering.

Jesus reveals himself to her as the Messiah (4:26). She leaves her water jar behind and tells the town about a man who knew all about her past (4:28-29), and many Samaritans come to call him the Savior of the world (4:42). The Father, Jesus says, is seeking true worshipers (4:23). Being fully known by Jesus does not end the conversation. It is where his gift begins, and there is no thirst you need to hide from him.

To think about: What part of your life are you afraid for Jesus to see, and what would it mean to bring it to him instead?