Plan Your Approach

Jesus Has a Better Question

Jesus’ response to the woman is creative and intriguing. He has a better question for her. She asked, “How can you…?” His better question is, “May I have living water?”

• This question would not have occurred to her. She cannot wrap her mind around even the content of his proposed question.

• Jesus responds in this way because he is taking her on a mental journey to a place she has never traveled in her mind and heart. He is drawing her to himself, the answer to the most urgent question and the deepest need of her life.

Most questions that we hear are secondary questions. They do not express the deepest need nor the greatest urgency.

• But these secondary questions can point the way to the most important questions that lurk in the back of the minds of everyone we meet.

• We can bring those most urgent and greatest questions to the forefront by keeping them in our own minds and hearts.

Jesus’ better question has two prerequisites, two conditions in order to be answered.

• Knowing the gift of God.

• Knowing who He is.

Do You Know the Gift of God?

Jesus answered her, “If you knew the gift of God…” (v10)

This is not a question about the existence of God. It is true, “He who comes to God must believe that he exists…” (Hebrews 11:6).

• Perhaps the existence of God was not formulated in the question because Jesus knew that the Samaritan woman believed in God’s existence.

• Believing in the existence of God is not the same thing as knowing the “gift of God.”

This is a question about the gift of God. “He who comes to God must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who diligently seek him.” (Hebrews 11:6).

• Gifts are personal. They are prepared by someone for someone. As such, we are very interested in gifts and we often treasure them highly. If asked we say, “That photograph was a gift from” and we name the person. A personal gift from God indicates that God himself is personal, not impersonal. It indicates that he knows who I am. It indicates that he is interested in me and that he cares about me. All of this is very important knowledge and wonderful news about God and my relationship with him. That God has turned toward me and is offering me a gift—this knowledge should not be taken lightly but should be received with joy and hope.

• The gift is from God. When we receive a gift, we want to know who it is from. All standard tags have a from line and a to line for the gift.

• We took a gift to Mississippi by accident last Sunday. We went to the ordination service for Matt Galloway. That gift was not ours. We thought it belonged to Mike and Madelyn Edens who traveled with us. They thought it belonged to us. We were both wrong, we realized. The gift belonged to neither one of us. We had taken Christi to the Nix home for a reception. We realized that it must be Christi’s gift for Abby Nix Finley, newly married. So we texted Christi that she had left her gift in the car. She texted back that it was not her gift but that she was delivering Dee Clubb’s gift to Abby.

This gift, being from God, must be really important.

• Think of this Samaritan woman who is now realizing that God has a gift for her. Her own sense of self is being challenged as she learns this truth. Heretofore she may have thought herself unworthy of any attention from God. Now she is being informed that God has a gift for her.

• Her view of God is also changing with this news. Maybe she always thought of God as simply the Judge, Jury, and Executioner of this universe. Now she is learning that he knows her personally and that he has something special for her.

You need to embrace this truth yourself. This is self-knowledge of the first importance. And this is God-knowledge of the first importance as well.

And you need to incorporate this kind of information somehow in your own approach to sharing your story with others. You will pique their curiosity and stir their interest if you let them know that God has a gift for them. 

Do You Know Who Speaks to You?

Jesus answered her, “If you knew the gift of God and who it is that asks you for a drink…” (v10)

Do you know who you are dealing with here? That is what Jesus is conveying to her. She has stumbled into a conversation with someone who knows all about her and is able to transform her life from this day forward and forevermore.

• It is time for her to shift her understanding of Jesus as a Jewish man and begin to know him more completely.

• Knowing Jesus more fully is the key to understanding the nature of your life and the nature of this universe.

• Jesus is my “understanding of everything,” so to speak. He wants this woman to know who he is, the Promised One, Messiah, and Savior of the world.

Do you know who is dealing with you?

• You have been stirred up in your heart. You are in a search mode, looking for something. This could very well be the Spirit of God at work in you just as it was with this woman at the well.

• Faith is the confession that God is dealing with me. Without this faith it is impossible to please God. You must not only believe that he exists but that he is personally involved in your life, speaking to you and caring for you.

Do You Know About Living Water?

“…you would have asked him and he would have given you living water” (v10).