When it comes to being honest, transparency has to be present. Would you agree? Being real requires identification and disclosure. First, you should identify what will eventually be deemed reasonable to share. Second, disclose the information. It all starts with you. People can only receive what you give them. So, I was reading the story about the Samaritan woman and realized something. You can’t get free from something without first admitting that there is something to be free from. The first step to solving a problem is to identify that there is a problem. The transparency of the Samaritan women lead her to be free. I would advise you while reading this and referencing it to the text to read the KJV version; I feel like it is best to read the exact way I did to see where I am going in order to follow.
John 4:7-10
God came to the Samaritan women. This, to me, showed that God is will pursue you by any means necessary. Him being a Jew, is expected to despise the Samaria people (I am just going based on the reading; I don’t know the knowledge of the separation). To see a man come to you when the world expects him not to is a man with intent. That shows me a characteristic of God. I am His top priority. He will break normality to offer me a life everlasting. That alone shows me the worth of praise owed to Him.
The first thing the woman did in response to Jesus initiating a conversation with her is questioning Him. She wanted to know why being a Jew, He was talking to her. She is used to being ignored and overlooked by the Jew, but He didn’t do that. He communed with her. And he responded saying if she knew who she was talking to, she wouldn’t have been questioning Him. That is me. I see my short comings and be like I am not worthy, I need to work on being qualified. And, I see my upcoming and be like I know my worth and will not settle. Either way is deception to me. I deserve hell. I am missing the message. Whether I am up or down, it is God. John the Baptist told them Jews that he was not the Christ (John 3:28). To me, that is the highest compliment giving to man. To be confused with Jesus would have me cheesing from jaw to jaw. “Me? Jesus? I mean they do say we look alike.” John sustained his humility and allowed God to be glorify. I asked myself if I was John what would I say. “I’m Christ Jr.”. All in all, I need God. Everything that transpires in my life if an opportunity for God to get the glory. Maybe it was good for the woman to be aware the neglect from the Jews to understand the encounter she was having with God. I need to be real with me and stop covering stuff up so I will be able to encounter a God that is able to shift realities. Being transparent with myself may be just what I need for God to go on and have His strength made perfect in my weakness. I am not the Samaritan woman, I know God. I need to get out of waiting on Him to come to me. I had that encounter already December 9, 2012. God is my healer, my peace, my redeemer, my joy. It is my job to be real and allow Him to continue to move in my life.
John 4:11-15
One thing that got me was the humility of God. He is the King of kings, Lord of lords. He had every right to be like “female you better chill with all these questions and recognize who you talking to”. But God. He persistently pursued to introduce Himself to her with grace. It leads me to examining myself. I have been denied opportunities, failed tests, and even been cut off from people’s lives. Instead of taking the “WWJD” approach, I started moving with a motto of “I’ll proved them wrong”. Ever responded to rejection with that motto? It is common for us to demand respect, ensuring people know our capabilities. May I flip the script a say that a God that is greater than you was even over looked. May I also include that it is not up to you for others to realize who they are encountering. God have said He who will let them come (Revelation 22:17). The greatest gift He has given man, in my opinion, is a free will. He doesn’t force anyone to chose who they want to serve and where to spend their life everlasting. He did His work already, He has proved Himself to be God. It is up to us. This was the Samaritan woman encounter followed by her chose to follow suit.
Another thing that got me was her response. She didn’t give God 3 to 5 business days to either accepted the offer or rejected it. Her reaction was her response. “Sir, give me this water”. Can we say we would have responded the same? And keep in mind that she still doesn’t know who she is talking to (notice her addressing Him as sir). The power of transparency is being aware of your personal situations 24/7 as its realest state. If she didn’t know herself to acknowledge that Jews are not supposed to have any relations let alone have conversations with her, she may not have accepted that water and missed out on what she needed. Get free. Unclog yourself with false truth about yourself. You may be still struggling with something you’ve been praying for and have drove yourself to believe that you are delivered but don’t understand why your body still reacts to lustful scents and sceneries. His grace allows you to flee majority of the time, but can you truly say that you don’t think about doing it one more time? It is a battle sometimes getting rid of habits and things that you were exposed to. Be honest with yourself; it may just be what will lead you to your deliverance.
John 4:16-19
Boy, if I was the Samaritan woman, I would have responded saying “you got to be God” to what Jesus said. Woman get away with concealing information than men so to hear someone call me out on something I don’t have on my forehead and most definitely not on my social media post, this person has to be beyond humanity or involve in something supernatural. Maybe that was God’s intent. He had to take an approach for her to come to the realization of who was in front of her. God is so faithful. This shows me that God will reach way down to pick you up. You are never to far gone for Him to save you; you just have to want to be delivered. This is bringing me to a familiar saying that we say. “I gotta get myself together before I give myself to God”. And if you have already given yourself to God, you are not exempt. “I gotta keep the fire burning”. Now, I am not trying to demise both statement; they both are real and honestly, I love how we reference holiness enough to where we feel like we need to put in work ourselves before God step in. If I may give you a new perspective, consider a neurologists. They specialize in nerves, treating diseases in the central nervous system. Let’s say you schedule an appointment to talk to a neurologist about a condition that is causing you pain from time to time. You say enough is enough and decided to go get checked out. You drive to the hospital, valet your car, and the first you say to the person that comes to get your car “I find myself having chronic pain and I don’t know why. Do you have an idea what this may be about? And I find myself losing memories. I keep forgetting my phone password.” That valet driver may look at you crazy. And granted, that valet driver may be educated about your situation but it’s equip to treat you back to health. You have as much expertise as a valet drive oppose to a doctor that knows exactly what to do to treat you when it comes to you and God. We need to stop thinking we can fix our situation before giving it to a God who can make the impossible possible. God knows where you are and just how to fix you. If you feel like you too far gone, it’s deception. And this also goes to the saved people that feel like they read more, do more charity, give more offering, testify more that will prevent them to never falling again. Deception. Give it to God. Pride comes before a fall and if we can set our pride aside for once in our life and come to an understanding that we are man, He is God, we can freely do as we are instructed which is casting our cares on Him. He cares for you. He do not do things to harm or condemn us (Romans 8:1). Get free. He wants to free you. Want yourself to be free as well.
John 4:20-23
Honestly, all I got from this is that we are now free worshippers. We don’t need to wait until we get to a certain place to reference God. We have access to do it anywhere and everywhere.
John 4:24-26
You will be surprised who knows God. There are wealthy people that knows Jesus is Lord. I don’t believe God was solely revealing Himself to the Samaritan woman. I believe He was gracing her with an opportunity to surrender her assurance in knowing the Messiah. I want to take this to our lives. Why do we doubt knowing who God is? Why do I doubt knowing who I is? I can truly say I wait on a theatrical entrance when I need God. Deception. God had a regular conversation with the Samaritan woman just like two random people having a conversation in the line at a convenient store. He is lowly and the nature of God is consistent. Actors plays roles they don’t live by on a regular basis and it takes practice and time to execute. I remember when I was enrolled in a drama class in high school and one of my assignments was to write and act out a monologue on the tragic event of 9/11. My teacher told the class to picture working in one of the Tower and seeing the collapse. Action. That was one of the most challenging assignments in that class. It was hard putting myself in a setting outside of my nature. I’ve never been in a situation where my physical setting was normal one second and then tumbling down the next. When it came time to perform, I gave all of me for that 5 minutes. I ran. I screamed. I fell. Everything had to be extra to make up for the discrepancy between who I am as a person and who I needed to be for a passing score. There is no discrepancy in God. He didn’t need to set up have a big bang appearance. He is Lord and there is no one like Him. He has showed Himself when He created the heavens and the earth. He was still God when He told Abraham and Sara that they would conceive. He was still God when He saved the children of Israel from Egypt. He showed Himself to be God before us. Get to know the nature of God.
John 4:27-30
The Samaritan woman’s movement changed. She went from hiding herself to making herself known. “Come, see a man, which told me all things…” Looks like she forgot who she was portrayed as by people. That’s what God sometimes do when your focus is solely on Him. I think what this is trying to show me is that I can go from “I am struggling” to “I was struggling” if I fix my eyes on Him. I was created by God and for God so in essence, God gets the glory in everything and might I add He knows what He is doing and how to do it. When I used to hear that saying (being made for Him), I am going to be honest when I say I thought God was full of Himself. I would tell myself that this is the most selfish thing anyone can do let alone live by. How can someone make something just so it can benefit them and then want to be deemed as “great” when we don’t get compensated for our submission? When I went to God, I was expecting not to go through nothing. Life was going to be a breeze but it felt like I was going through more saved than unsaved. I mean I couldn’t do nothing and I didn’t know what the deal about that was. As you can see, I was just focusing on “I”. Me, me, me. I was getting myself into a dark place of reprobation, but God. Take my love for shoes as an example. I am a sneaker head so you could imagine how good of care I take for my shoes. When I see people walk in areas or handle their shoes any kind of way, I automatically tell myself they don’t care about how they look. When have I became greater than God? I detected the hypocrisy in me. When I buy shoes, I make sure it is my size and fits the appearance of the purpose of what I am trying to pursuit fashion wise. Because I know how chic I am, I have standards. I don’t just buy anything. I take it through a test. Can I lace then the way I want? Can it go with my style? Is it giving what it is suppose to give? Can I wear it more than once? It the cost worthy it? When I step out and I hear “I like your shoes” or see someone star me down saying “I see you”, it makes me feel good because I know what I went through to come out the house looking like how I be looking. And the shoes stay in good condition. I don’t neglect them nor treat them any kind of way. When I see puddles, I walk different. And honestly, night or day, I expect to get a compliment. It is a lifestyle. It is in my nature if you will. A shoe can’t do nothing but to be what it is purposed to be, which is to be a shoe. If my 9s could talk, it would probably be like “I am down here, she is not the shoe.” How can I truly say I feel good when people give me compliments on my shoes simultaneously thinking that God has no right to get glory for what I do? God forgive me. He thought of me worthy dying for. He counted up the cost (just like I do before I pay for a shoe). And upon purchase, He has statues to be His. I can’t just live any kind of way and expect to see the kingdom of Heaven. His style is Holiness and if I can’t execute this purpose when I step outside every time, I should expect “depart from me, I never knew you.” And neglect me, that will never happen. It is not in His nature. He said He will never leave me nor forsake me. When I go through things and see how I am still at peace or surviving, I should consider those walks in the puddles with my 1s on. I can’t promise I won’t get wet but I am sure to say I won’t get soaked or drown because He is gracefully handling me. I am just a person; I am not God. I can only be what I am purposed to do. The only difference between me and a shoe is I have free will. I have the opportunity to chose who I surrender to; a shoe has no say so who buys them. I should be just like that Samaritan woman, in these streets saying “ya’ll let me tell y’all about a Man.”
I pray while reading this, you were able to examine yourself, being real with yourself. I also pray after you’ve read this that you have come (if not already) to a willingness to be free from what is limiting you. We all have our battles. Some may be greater than others. You know you. Use the power of transparency and seek deliverance. I could pray prosperity over your life so long as I live but it will take you to truly want it for yourself for fervent prayers to avail. And know that there is rest in God. Be blessed beautiful believer.