Single Women of the Bible: Seeing God No Matter Your Relationship Status Sýnishorn

The Woman at the Well: John 4

When we read the story of the Samaritan woman at the well we often think about her status as an outcast. If you are someone who has a history of broken relationships and struggles with seeing your worth: you may see yourself in her story.

In John 4:4 it says, “Now he had to go through Samaria.” Scholars don’t know why He had to go to Samaria, but I’d like to think Jesus knew and pursued her, just like He does for us.

In Jesus’ conversation with the Samaritan woman, he knew her relationship history. One that she tried to hide because of her shame. She hid it so much that she had to go to the well to draw water at a time when she wouldn’t see anyone. Jesus knew her past, knew her mistakes and knew the deep longing in her life that she tried to satisfy through the five husbands and one man she was with but was not her husband.

She had met man after man, failed relationship after failed relationship, and there comes Jesus: the seventh man. The number 7 in the Bible is a number of completion. Jesus came to complete the longing in her heart for love and life through His gift of living water.

How have you tried to fill the longing only God can fill, through your dating relationships?

After her encounter with Jesus, she could not stay silent. This was one relational encounter that she didn’t have to hide: John 4:28 says: “Then, leaving her water jar, the woman went back to the town and said to the people, ‘come see a man who told me everything I ever did. Could this be the Messiah”? —John 4: 28-29.

Do you ever feel ashamed of being single? Do you feel like you sometimes want to run and hide? Run to Jesus, experience His living water, and tell the world what He has done.