Are You Pretending?

Ladies, hello! Trust God today. He is working in your life, and if you are going through a tiresome, weary, discouraging time, trust Him! He IS working! If you are living in energetic, top-of-the-mountain times, trust Him! He IS working! Amen?!

What I want to talk to you about is a story in the Bible that many of us have probably heard many times. If not, it will be an exciting revelation of God’s love for you, so let’s go there!

It’s a story that takes place in the New Testament, in John 4. Jesus finds himself tired and stopping in Samaria, resting at a well. Just to give you a little inside story, Jesus was a Jew and He was resting at a well in Samaria. Jews did not associate with Samaritans. But isn’t it just like Jesus to come searching us out in the most unpleasant places of life?! I love how he pursues me, no matter where I go. It says in Psalm 139:7-8 that there is no place we can be in life that He won’t be there with us! He loves us! And that’s just what He was doing for one Samaritan woman in this story.

He (Jesus) is sitting at the well and a Samaritan woman comes to get some water, and he asks her for a drink. She is taken back by this, as she knows he is a Jew. They have a conversation. Jesus talks to her about spiritual water, and she keeps coming back to the physical water. Then he does something so unpredictable; he asks her to go get her husband. What?!

So she responds that she has no husband, and Jesus, if you will, reads her mail. You know, that stuff that we don’t want anybody to know, not proud of, create some kind of façade so that we can hide it and somehow hide our brokenness and put on our best face so that people don’t ask? Or maybe that’s just me.

Anyway, he tells her that she is indeed not married, but has had five husbands and the man she is living with now is not her husband. Talk about putting it all out on the table??!! Why would he do this to her?

Because…Jesus can’t heal, redeem, and set free who we pretend to be! He can only heal what is really hurting and broken! But he is so desiring and willing! That’s why he brought up this hurt and brokenness of her life that she was trying to hide.

They have some more conversation that brings her more revelation of his love for her. Like when she tries changing the subject (ever tried that?) about where it is proper to worship, and He breaks down all walls (remember she’s a Samaritan), and says that one day it won’t matter where she worships, but that she will worship in Spirit and in truth! I love that!! Sometimes we get so stuck on the physical form of our worship and God reminds us that’s now what matters, it’s the condition of our heart!!

After she mentions that the Messiah is coming and he will reveal the truth of all these matters, and Jesus says, “I am He.”

Her heart is forever changed. He, the Christ, the Messiah, knows the truth about me and yet breaks down all these walls with such love and acceptance that her heart cannot deny it!! Look what she does next!

She goes back to her Samaritan friends and family (maybe, if they hadn’t shunned her) and tells them in verse 39, “He told me everything I ever did.” Have you ever been so excited to share your weaknesses, hidden sins?? This woman is so excited to share openly, because her heart has been changed by his love. She no longer has to hide her sin and live with a ball and chain! What relief! What love and acceptance! And what happens because of her REAL testimony? Many Samaritans came to meet and believe in Him and became worshippers of Jesus Christ! What an incredible exchange of “beauty for ashes” he makes out of our lives, huh?!

Ladies, I want to encourage you that when Jesus opened up the subject of the woman’s marital status at the well he was going there to heal this woman and set her free from something that had held her captive for so long. And He wants to do the same for you. So allow Jesus to sit at the well with you, look into your eyes, and deal with the real issues of your heart! Redemption is waiting. And He does not waste these moments, for look at the harvest of souls she reaped because her heart was truly changed and set free and now she knows real love! All because her Savior is TRUTH, and the “truth shall set you free.”

Jesus, thank you for seeking us out at the unpleasant places in life. Thank you for waiting for us at the well and seeking us out to set us free and love us from the pains and decisions, life that has happened to us that we are not proud of. And instead you turn it into power that brings people to the cross and that no longer has a hold on us! THANK YOU! I pray for all the ladies that are reading this that you will call out these hidden ball-and-chains and break their hold over us! Set us free with your love, forgiveness, and incredible acceptance. And, may others come to believe in you because of your touch in our REAL story. We love you and we trust you! Thank you, Amen.

Karissa Nelson

Karissa has one of the most beautiful voices you will ever hear, but on top of that talent and gift God has given her, she is a mother to three beautiful children and a helpmate to her husband, Shane. Together they raise their family and minister in Milton-Freewater, Oregon where Karissa grew up. Her passion for worship and family surround her daily. Isaiah 30:15, “This is what the Sovereign Lord, the Holy One of Israel, says: ‘Is repentance and rest in your salvation, in quietness and trust is your strength'” (NIV).