One On One: 100 Days With Jesus--Ministry YearsSample

Loved: The One who meets you   

Everyone longs to be loved by somebody—to be someone’s “person.” But to many, the desperate search has cost them hurt, compromise, and almost assuredly, loss. Too easily, we transfer that 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 had a special date planned with, let’s call her Abby. Since He wanted their conversation to be private, He sent His disciples to town to get lunch. Jesus waited for her alone.

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

She must have thought it crazy that Jesus asked her for a drink—a Samaritan (a racial issue) and a woman (a social issue)—especially when 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? She needed proof.

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

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

Jesus knows your soul only feels complete when you find your satisfaction 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, the car he drives, 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 saw His offer as something she needed, and herself as someone who needed saving. A perfect match. Her story not only quenched her thirst for living water, it convinced the whole town to follow Jesus, the Messiah.

Tomorrow: One on one with Jesus and the demons