Unfathomable Grace

Jesus left the populace, took his ministry on the road, and travelled to the region of Samaria. While resting near a well, he met a religious woman who had come to draw water, and he struck up a conversation. He looked her in the eye and with serious tenderness said:

Give me a drink.  (John 4:4)

Jesus, the Sovereign King of all men and women, desired, deserved, and demanded water from this female servant. Had she known to whom she was talking, she should have responded with an immediate and fervent, “Yes, Lord!” Her Creator had a desire. He made a demand. Her duty was to respond with diligent obedience from her heart and with her hands.

Well, Jesus may have been physically thirsty, but he was really using this dialogue as an opportunity to share spiritual truth with one of his elect, female disciples. So, as the conversation developed, Jesus presented his glorious and gracious offer:

If you knew the gift of God, and who it is that is saying to you, ‘Give me a drink,’ you would have asked him, and he would have given you living water.  (John 4:10)

After meditating on this for a short time, I was struck with the irony:

Jesus desired, deserved, and demanded water from the woman, and yet he promised to deliver that which he desired, in supernatural abundance, if she would but ask.

Could not the same be true of all Jesus’ disciples today? What does God require of you? He desires, deserves, and demands worship from your heart, soul, mind, and strength — all the time. All those made in his image are to pray without ceasing. He requires that you have no vain imaginations of who he is, that you hold his name reverently, and that you worship him by working six days each week and by not working on a seventh. He desires purity in thought and action so that you always obey authority, maintain sexual purity, honor and improve life, refrain from stealing, use all your words righteously, and covet nothing but God. From your heart, never ceasing worship is to flow in the form of love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, gentleness, faithfulness, and self-control. Such character and conduct are his requests. Such is his will. Such is his expectation. Such is his Law; this is what he desires, deserves, and demands. Friends, have your read the Word of God lately and heard the long list of desires from Jesus? Now, do you find yourself impotent and paralyzed? When you look back at yesterday, do you see your inability to satisfy his righteous expectations? When you look forward at today, do you sense the same inadequacy? Rightly, do you see the standard of his Law to high for you to achieve? His well is too deep. Your hands are too tired. Your heart is not inclined. His bucket is never full. Yes, Jesus desires, deserves, and demands more than you can deliver.

However, consider the main idea of Jesus’ conversation and this devotional: Jesus desires, deserves, and demands water/fruit from his disciples, and yet he promises to deliver that which he desires, in supernatural abundance, if you will but ask. Now hear the good news of the Gospel of Jesus. Jesus said to her, and he says to you:

Everyone who drinks of this water will be thirsty again, but whoever drinks of the water that I will give him will never be thirsty again. The water that I will give him will become in him a spring of water welling up to eternal life.  (John 4:13-14)

The woman said to him:

Sir, give me this water, so that I will not be thirsty or have to come here to draw water.  (John 4:15)

Will you, likewise, ask Jesus to deliver to and through you that which he desires, deserves, and demands?

What a glorious privilege it is, to partner with Jesus, in giving to Jesus, that which he first gives to us.