When I was younger, I used to do lots of silly things with my little brother. One thing we used to do was whenever one of us wanted the other to help the other out or do a favor, we would say “If you do this for me, I’ll be your servant for the day.” Then for the rest of the day, the person who said that would have to do whatever the other one wanted. It usually ended up just having to make the other person a snack or something like that. Looking back though, I realize how foolish that was because being a servant to my brother for the day ended up being way worse than whatever small favor he did for me. 

I was thinking about this today, and I started thinking what if this was how God acted toward us. What if whenever we asked him for something or He did something for us, he would require something in return from us. I realized that I used to have this mindset before I had a better grasp on the meaning of the gospel. Because if God did require us to do something in return for what He has done for us, then the gospel wouldn’t be true.

Jesus gave his life for me and bore my shame on the cross before I even knew how shameful I was. Jesus loved me before I even knew who He was. He loves everyone in this entire world even knowing that many people will never actually love him back. Jesus came to this earth and saved me because He loved me. That’s it-plain and simple. There’s no catch. I don’t have to do anything because that’s the whole point of him coming to save me. I can’t save myself. I am incapable of fixing my brokenness.

I think it’s easy for us to think that there has to be a catch or that he requires something in return because that is what we are conditioned to in this society. Unconditional love seems like a foreign concept. As much as we don’t want to admit it, we are selfish people.  We love others but we expect them to love us back. We serve others, but it’s hard for us to keep doing things for someone if they never do anything for us. I know this because I’ve experienced this feeling. But that’s not how God operates. And I am SO thankful for this because if His love was conditional, I know I would’t do enough to earn his love. 

So yes, God doesn’t require anything of us. He doesn’t require me to be his servant when He answers my prayer or blesses me or saves me. But the funny thing is that I want to be his servant. I want to devote my life, my thoughts, my words, and my actions to Him. I never wanted to be my little brother’s servant-that felt like a burden. And he hadn’t really done anything that worthy for me to serve him. But I WANT to be God’s servant-for me that is joy and a pleasure to let him reign in my life. God has done everything for me and deserves all the glory and all my praise.

The passage about the woman at the well in John 4 has recently become one of my favorite passages in the entire Bible. Bold statement, I know. But I’ve heard it taught several times recently and each time I seem to gather some new truth from it that I didn’t notice before.

So I want use this post to write down some of the things I have learned from this passage.

John 4:4 says “And He had to pass through Samaria.” Now something I know is that Jews don’t like Samarians. They don’t associate with them, and they certainly don’t talk to them. There was always a way to go around Samaria for Jews to get to wherever they were going. But the Bible says Jesus had to pass through. Why? Because he had to meet the woman at the well. He had to talk to her and tell her about the living water. Just like Jesus had to come down from Heaven to us. He had to come invade our lives and come get us. He had to come rescue us from our sin. It was the only way.

But he wanted to. Something I really love about this story and so many others in the Bible is how Jesus approached this woman to speak specifically to her. The God of the entire universe sought a single girl out because he cared that much about her. He’s that personal. God is infinite. But He’s also intimate.

After telling the woman about the living water, he opens her biggest wound-how she has slept with 5 men, yet she has never been married. For this reason she has been outcasted from her town. In order to break through to her heart, He had to open a wound. He has to open our wounds, our deepest pains, in order to break through to our hearts to start healing us.

But going back now to how she has been outcasted from her community. Jesus doesn’t view her that way. He knows her and he accepts her. When I heard that, I started thinking about those two things: to be known and to be accepted. It seems that in this world, those things can’t really go together. If people really know me, everything about me, would they really accept me? I don’t know. And if I want to be accepted, there some things that I don’t’ want people to know about me for fear of them not accepting me. But God knows everything about me, yet He fully accepts me!

C.S Lewis once said “We are more flawed and sinful than we ever dare to believe, but we are more loved and accepted than we ever dare to hope.” That right there is the beautiful unconditional love of God, plain and simple.

The word worship or a form of it is said 10 times in this passage so obviously it must be pretty important. Here is what I learned: at my core, I was made to be a worshipper so I will worship something. We always worship something, whether it’s a sports team, school, a person, or music, our heart is always longing to worship. However in my own experience, I have found that the only time I am ever truly satisfied is when I am worshipping God. When I am following the plans God has set for me or living for the glory of Christ because he deserves it.

Now I love the last part of this passage. After Jesus says all this to her, she leaves her cistern at the well and goes back to the town to tell everyone about her encounter with Jesus. She leaves behind the thing that she thought she needed and then goes to tell everyone about this living water.

A real encounter with Jesus leads to real life change. It leads to us wanting to talk about it. Wanting to share with others about this great Messiah and great joy. To me this passage is a perfect display of the gospel. Jesus meets us where we are at, shows us how we are incorrectly trying to fill our needs, and then offers himself to fill those needs. Then this abundant grace and joy we receive overflows in our lives and makes us want to tell others and bring them to Jesus so he can show them the same love he showed us. It’s that simple.