We Are All the Woman at the Well

This was taken from a message I was blessed to deliver to our Womens' retreat at our church, coined "the Weekend at the Well".  

Before you dig into this lesson and my heart from this well known passage, let's refresh our memories on this favorite story of mine.  (Read John 4:4 - John 4:39) This link will take you there: Bible.com

So you have this woman - this woman that had NO self-worth to speak of.  Society labeled her. Her past labeled her.  Her own actions lived up (or down) to that label, and she even cut herself off from the rest of society because of it.  (that’s why she was at the well in the midday instead of the morning when most other women would draw water).  She was the one the other women whispered about as she passed by - whether it was true or not.  She was the one who was so desperate to fill whatever it was she was missing, that she chose to go from one man to the next, desperately seeking that fulfillment she’d been longing for.  In fact, she altered her habits and behaviors based on the label that she wore - further accepting society’s judgment of her. Oh, she knew church.  She knew tradition.  She wasn’t’ stupid or unlearned - she knew what the church meant for her and for other people - she even challenged Jesus with a “theological” question to show that.  

We read this story and so many of us think about this poor woman - "oh how sad….she was so far gone…she had lost all hope…"

But honestly, I think that you and I might just have more in common with her than we really want to admit. 

Sis, we ARE all the woman at the well.  Every one of us is that woman. 

Maybe you haven’t had five husbands and are currently living with a man who is not your husband….

But we all have a label that IF WE ARE HONEST we have allowed to keep us from the arms of Jesus at some point in our lives.

Maybe it’s your past that you’re allowing to define you… 

Maybe it’s what someone else has done to you, not necessarily something you have done to yourself.  

Maybe your label is your struggle with an addiction - alcohol, drugs, nicotine, vape, porn, food…gossip.  

MAYBE you had your life all figured out…and one wrong turn turned into two, then three, then before you knew it you were so far from the will of God that you didn’t even recognize your “label” anymore.

Maybe your label has been “friend of God” for sometime…but maybe when you go to church you just don’t FEEL anything anymore…and you’re watching all these people getting blessed and Holy Spirit raining down and you. Are. Just. There.  And before you know it, your label now has less to do with being on fire and more to do with watching the fire.  

But there’s one thing that we tend to forget about this woman that Jesus HAD to go meet at the well (and also about ourselves):

HE KNEW HER.  He SAW her.  More than likely at this point, for the first time in her life, she felt noticed for who she was, not for her label.  He saw her for who she was right then, and still offered her that Living Water.  

Sis, He KNOWS you.  He SEES you. He sees the tears and the fear and the worry and anxiety…. He knows the sleepless nights and the lonely car rides and the showers that are just long  enough to hide your tears from your family.  He sees.  He knows.  And HE IS HERE.  

Now…. We get to the rest of the story… see, this woman was forever changed after this day at the well.  And you know what? When we allow ourselves to meet Jesus at the well of our own lives, we are all changed in some way tool. Some more obvious than others.. some in such an intimate way that it’s no one else’s business … just like this woman at the well was changed by her encounter with Jesus. 

So where do we go from here? 

Well let’s see what this woman did.  

John 4

28 The woman left her water jar beside the well and ran back to the village, telling everyone, 29 "Come and see a man who told me everything I ever did! Could he possibly be the Messiah?" 30 So the people came streaming from the village to see him. ………………….skip down to verse # 39 Many Samaritans from the village believed in Jesus because the woman had said, "He told me everything I ever did!"

She left her water pot and RAN INTO THE VILLAGE. 

Ran to the ones who mocked and whispered and pointed fingers. 

Ran to the ones who used her and gossiped about her and refused to accept her. 

Ran towards the very thing she had spent soooo much time and energy avoiding. 

And she told them what Jesus had done for her. 

You know in today’s world, what she said may not have been so great, right? I mean she wasn’t telling them that she had been healed or that a lame leg growing straight or a loved one being raised from the dead…. 

SHE JUST TOLD THEM WHAT HE DID FOR HER. 

That’s all it takes. 

Just tell them what He did for YoU. Show them who He is TO YOU. 

And just like this woman’s testimony affected so many (“MANY IN THAT TOWN BELIEVED…”), your witness, your testimony of what the Lord has done for you has the power to affect so much more than JUST you.  YOUR experience can make way for your family’s experience with the Man at the well.  It can smooth the way for your coworkers’ encounter with the Living Water.  What if it was your testimony that could even reach the same one you struggled to forgive at some point in your past? 

We’re all the woman at the well.  So let’s be that woman, and tell people what Jesus has done for us - big or small, today’s miracle or one from years ago.  Many believed in Jesus because of this woman’s experience.  Many more could believe in Jesus because of all our testimonies. 

Go run, sis!