Trusting God When Fortitude Fails You

As a child if I heard this phrase I knew I was caught. Strangely even if I didn’t do anything wrong these words would put me on alert. I would quickly run through my actions of the day or days before, anxiously scanning my brain for infractions. Getting caught can bring shame and embarrassment. Sometimes that shame leads us to hide from the world. We may hide internally, keeping the burden of shame deep inside. We may feel forced to hide due to societal norms. This was the story of the Samaritan women at the well. While on His way to Galilee, Jesus stopped at Jacob’s well and met a woman coming to draw water.

“Jacob’s well was there, and Jesus, tired 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 4:7-8 NIV

It was noon, the heat of the day, when she went to the well. This was a time when she wouldn’t have expected to see anyone there. After questioning Jesus on how she could serve Him, a Jew, Jesus tells her He can offer her living water. He also tells her to get her husband and come back. She responds that she has no husband and Jesus agrees telling her she has had five husband and now lives with a man who is not her husband. I can only imagine how I would feel if a stranger told me they knew my hidden secrets. And I have secrets. But Jesus didn’t tell her what He knew to make her feel bad. He was going to tell her news that was bigger than her secrets.

“The woman said, “I know that the Messiah” (called Christ) “ is coming. When He comes, He will explain everything to us.”” John 4:25 NIV

“Then Jesus declared, “ I, the one speaking to you-I am He.””John 4:26 NIV

This is the first time in the gospels that Jesus reveals He is the Messiah. The first time He says “I am”. Jesus could have told the “proper people” at that time this news. Instead, Jesus chose to tell this woman, shunned by society and a Galatian at that. He knows our secrets and He still finds us worth of His life.

If you hear the enemy saying well, well, well, just tell, tell, tell him, that Jesus knows and you will not be hiding.

“If you declare with your mouth, that “Jesus is Lord”, and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved.” Romans 10:9 NIV