"A City Changed by Trust"

"What is It that Builds Trust?"


We left off with the woman at the well in verse fifteen asking for the water that would never leave her thirsty again! You know, it would be wonderful if we would be able to find a water that could permanently quench our physical thirst and leave us feeling full from now on! Wouldn't it?

Let's look at the next verses,

John 4:16 Jesus saith unto her, Go, call thy husband, and come hither.
John 4:17 The woman answered and said, I have no husband. Jesus said unto her, Thou hast well said, I have no husband:
John 4:18 For thou hast had five husbands; and he whom thou now hast is not thy husband: in that you said the truth.

Was Jesus really ignorant about this women's situation? Do you think he was telling her to go get her husband so she would feel guilty? Was it possible that He was setting her up for failure just in case she decided to lie? Of course our Lord wasn't doing this because He loved her and He wanted to share the great news of hope and faith!

Let's look at this for a minute! He tells her to call her husband, knowing she was going to answer him as she did. She didn't lie because the word husband in the Greek literally means "one man or husband" and she had many husbands. The thing is that Jesus told her that she was being truthful in what she said because she had five husbands and the one she was staying with now was not her husband either! It is a true statement that she made. What was the point then?

Jesus wanted her to first of all realize that she had a secret that she was keeping from everyone.

Maybe allot of the people she encountered from day to day were people who would have criticized her secret affairs but Jesus just wanted her to realize that He was aware of this fact. That's all. Then the woman admits to Jesus that she believes that He is a prophet.

John 4:19 The woman saith unto him, Sir, I perceive that thou art a prophet.
Jesus goes on to tell her that a time will come when they will not worship in the mountain or Jerusalem because the true worshippers will worship the father in spirit and in truth. Let's look at this verse,
John 4:23 But the hour comes, and now is, when the true worshippers shall worship the Father in spirit and in truth: for the Father seeks such to worship him.
John 4:24 God is a Spirit: and they that worship him must worship him in spirit and in truth.

Then the woman said that she knew of the Messiah that would come called Christ and that He would tell them all about Himself when He came.

John 4:25 The woman said unto him, I know that Messiah comes, which is called Christ: when he is come, he will tell us all things.

She had heard this news from times past but wasn't really looking for it now! She wasn't really ready for the Messiah based on her life at the time! How many people today know it and believe it but don't really know what they are worshipping? Would they know it if the Lord would appear before them today?

John 4:26 Jesus saith unto her, I that speak unto thee am he.

That is why the woman had faith in the coming of the Messiah but she hadn't developed a trust in Him yet. Trust must be built by relationship and learning to believe in someone.

E. M. Bounds, a great author of the early nineteen hundreds, once wrote, "Our Lord puts trust as the very foundation of praying. The background of prayer is trust. The whole issuance of Christ's ministry and work was dependent on implicit trust in His Father. The centre of trust is God. Mountains of difficulties, and all other hindrances to prayer are moved out of the way by trust and his virile henchman, faith. When trust is perfect and without doubt, prayer is simply the outstretched hand, ready to receive. Trust perfected, is prayer perfected. Trust looks to receive the thing asked for -- and gets it. Trust is not a belief that God can bless, that He will bless, but that He does bless, here and now. Trust always operates in the present tense. Hope looks toward the future. Trust looks to the present. Hope expects. Trust possesses. Trust receives what prayer acquires. So what prayer needs, at all times, is abiding and abundant trust."

Let's close with the final decision made by this woman to go and tell others. It doesn't say that Jesus told her to do this, but she went and told the men to come see a man that had told her all that she had done! I would imagine that this referred to the men that she had been married to before and the one she now stayed with that wasn't her husband. Don't you think maybe it got the attention of those men when she told them that someone knew all about her life's experiences? They may have been judges and lawyers or religious leaders and business men! Who knows but they were also waiting for the Messiah to appear! It doesn't seem that they were ready for His appearance either.
But the time had come for men to believe and develop a trust in their Rescuer; the Messiah that came to give the Gift of Living water to all who received it into their body and soul!

John 4:39 And many of the Samaritans of that city believed on him for the saying of the woman, which testified, He told me all that ever I did.
John 4:40 So when the Samaritans were come unto him, they besought him that he would tarry with them: and he abode there two days.
John 4:41 And many more believed because of his own word;
John 4:42 And said unto the woman, Now we believe, not because of thy saying: for we have heard him ourselves, and know that this is indeed the Christ, the Saviour of the world.

Let's pray,

Our Jehovah and Messiah, I come to you in thanksgiving for the Gift of Life that flows in me as a fount springing up perpetually so that I too may go and share the message that the Messiah has come that we may have life. May I go with boldness and trust to tell others about your love and amazing miracles just a the Samaritan women did with zeal sharing her testimony!

The Names of God

JEHOVAH: LORD in our English Bibles (all capitals). Yahweh is the covenant name of God. Occurs 6823 times in the OT First use Gen. 2:4 (Jehovah Elohim). From the verb "to be", havah, similar to chavah (to live), "The Self-Existent One," "I AM WHO I AM" or 'I WILL BE WHO I WILL BE" as revealed to Moses at the burning bush, Ex.3. The name of God, too sacred to be uttered, abbreviated ( . . . . ) or written "YHWH" without vowel points. The tetragrammaton. Josh., Judges, Sam., and Kings use Jehovah almost exclusively. The love of God is conditioned upon His moral and spiritual attributes. (Dan. 9:14; Ps. 11:7; Lev. 19:2; Hab. 1:12). Note Deut. 6:4, 5 known to Jews as the Sh'ma uses both Jehovah and Elohim to indicate one God with a plurality of persons.