Daily Devotional Details

Date

A woman from Samaria came to draw water. John 4:7

Jesus had left Judea in the south, and he was heading for Galilee in the north. We are told that he had to pass through Samaria (4:4)—the most direct route.

Jesus came to a town called Sychar, and being tired from his journey, he sat down beside a well. It was the sixth hour, which was noon, the hottest and most exhausting time of the day.

The disciples had gone into the city to buy food so Jesus was alone. Picture a low wall that would have surrounded the top of the well, and Jesus sitting on the ground with his back against the wall. The woman came to draw water, and Jesus said to her, “Give me a drink” (4:7). That was the beginning of a conversation that changed this woman’s life forever!

There is a remarkable contrast between where this woman was at the beginning of the story and where she is at the end. Once you see the bookends of the story, you will understand what happened in the middle.

At the beginning, Jesus says, “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” (4:10). This woman did not know Jesus or what God could give her. She hadn’t asked or received.

But by the end, she is in an entirely different position. She begins telling others about Jesus: “Come, see a man who told me all that I ever did. Can this be the Christ?” (4:29).

How do you think this change happened in the woman’s life?