Is There a Samaria in Your Life?

Do you ever feel there is something in your life that you must or need to do? The scripture in John 4:4 where Jesus said, "And he must needs to go through Samaria." has been on my mind lately. He needed to go there because He knew there was someone who had need of Him. She didn't know it, at the time, but He knew well ahead of time what she needed, and it came in the form of a reality check.


How many of us need one of those? Can we handle them when they come in the words of a friend or loved one? A proverb says, ”Faithful are the wounds of a friend.”

Jesus not only needed to minister to that woman, but He needed to give her a reality check. She needed something to get herself out of the stupor of life where she just existed. She needed to know that there was someone who knew her better than she knew herself and loved her anyway. She needed to know that she was more than she had settled for, trying to find herself in numerous relationships instead of the one relationship that would bring her life, health and love.

"And he must needs to through Samaria" is such a beautiful phrase even though, the wording at first sounds a bit strange. Jesus not only ministers but is ministered to by doing what He needed to do, which in this case was bring life where there was death and darkness. Where the woman normally tried to hide herself from the community she went on to become a preacher of the good news of God. The news that someone can know everything about you and still love, want and desire you.

We can't change our past, but we can make it work for us and the Lord as wonder and awe forms when others hear what we have gone through. We give glory to the Lord who has helped us when we were too weak to help ourselves.

Many people are going through tremendous trials at this moment. Prayer requests pour in that would break your heart and the heart of the Lord. The only way we are going to make it is to cling to the Lord and listen to that small voice that tells us what we "need" to do. It might be something simple as giving a dejected person a hug, sharing some time with someone when you don't really have time of your own, calling up someone in ministry and telling them they are doing a great job. Look around you; that person that is your "Samaria'" may appear in a way or form you didn't expect. But the thought has always been there in the heart of the Lord who loves us all supremely and will go out of His way to go to your "Samaria.'"