God Intervenes

Yesterday, we got a vivid and accurate picture of what we look like when we attempt to make temporal things fill the eternal “soul hole” that is within us. You might have heard it referred to as a “God-shaped” hole and although I don’t think that we are running around with little holes in our bodies shaped like God, the analogy is sufficient. We were made to be eternal. Believers and unbelievers alike will live forever. The difference comes down to where we will spend eternity and who secures that for us.

For the unbeliever, eternity is secured all by ourselves. We don’t need an Advocate, a Savior, a Redeemer or a Substitute. Hell is already ours and to earn it all we have to do is draw breath. This is the pinnacle of self-reliance. When we fully rely on ourselves to secure our eternity we are fully able to do so. But it is an eternity based on our own merit and not the holy perfection that is required to enter God’s heaven. Our own merit is always flawed, always lacking, always missing the mark because we “all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God” (Rom. 3:23). Hell is about me feeling sufficient in my own ability to secure eternity and doing it my way.

On the other hand, Jesus said in John 14:6, “I am the Way, the Truth and the Life. No one comes to the Father but by me.” So, clearly Jesus Christ is the only One who can secure heavenly eternity for us. Heaven belongs to God and He has graciously provided a way for us to abide with Him there but it is the way of His choosing. Amazingly, the way is free. It isn’t without sacrifice, but it is free. Furthermore, God is so good not to conceal the way to get there. He isn’t unclear or mysterious about how to gain heaven. Lastly, what grace that we would even be given an option! Oh, what love the Father has bestowed upon us that WE would have the ability to be called children of God because of Jesus’ work on the cross on our behalf! All that is required of us to believe! “For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son that whosoever BELIEVES in Him should not perish but have eternal LIFE” (John 3:16). Praise God!

Today, we will encounter a woman who has clearly been doing things her way. She is flawed, lacking, missing the mark and completely self-reliant. Her life is filled with the idols of relationship, emotion, control and image. On one seemingly random day, God intervenes...

Read John 4:7-26

When Jesus meets the woman at the well she has done a poor, although consistent job of trying to find satisfaction from outside of herself. She has tried relationship after relationship. She has most likely at some point elevated control and emotions to a level of idolatry in her life and now she is thirsty and she just wants a drink of water.

I can only imagine that this woman looks haggard. The years of disappointment and unfulfilled expectations show on her face. The area around the well is quiet as she approaches and seeing a man sitting there she probably kept her distance. Suddenly the man speaks to her and God intervenes.

Tomorrow we will take a closer look at this scene as it unravels but for now I want to draw your attention to Jesus. Jesus’ presence in this woman’s life is not random. Jesus left Judea headed to Galilee but one statement, often overlooked, in v.4 shows His deliberate pursuit of this one woman. Verse four states, “He HAD TO pass through Samaria.” In Jewish culture, the Samaritans were so hated by the Jews that Jews took the long way around in order to avoid passing through Samaria. But Jesus, had to go. He had to go because before the foundation of the world He had an appointment with this woman at the well. What seemed random to her, was divinely appointed by God. This day, God would intervene in this woman’s eternal destiny.

The same is true of the cross. What seemed a random death to the onlookers that day at Golgotha was divinely appointed by God. A plan that was set in motion when the first day of creation began and a plan that continues on until the final return of Christ. That plan converged on Calvary’s Hill. Calvary is the crux, the apex of history. It was not some random event sprinkled in history. Ladies, that plan is what history is all about. God intervenes.

What circumstance in your life, seemingly random, is God using to intervene? Where is God intervening in order to draw you to the Way, the Truth and the Life? What idols are being revealed that keep you sitting by the fire? To the unbeliever, confess your sin today and BELIEVE in God’s intervention into your eternity through Jesus!

To the believer, the cross is where God first intervened into your eternity and it is where you are continually reminded that God still intervenes for you today. Our hope lies in the cross alone. Jesus HAD TO go to the cross for you and for me. It is the place that we HAVE TO go to to revive our hearts, rekindle our passion and refocus our worship. Won’t you go there today?