John 4:16-26
The woman at the well has a hard time grasping that Jesus is speaking on a spiritual, emotional level—she thinks he’s still talking about actual water. So Jesus takes a different route: He asks her to “go call your husband and come back” (John 4.16).
When the woman replies that she doesn’t have a husband, Jesus uses the opportunity to expose the deeper longings in her heart. He identifies that she’s been married five times and that she’s currently not married to the guy she's sharing her bed with. Jesus is pointing out that somewhere in her heart there’s a longing causing her to keep running to men, a pursuit that will never satisfy.
Our longings demand fulfillment, and we can find a million ways to satiate our God-given desires. Some are good and some not so good. Everything we do (pursuits) is driven by some longing. Often we can identify which longings are driving us by identifying our pursuits. Our longings are like sign-posts directing us to God. This is what Jesus did with the Samaritan woman: he identified her pursuits to reveal her deeper longings.
In drawing you, God wants to be your security, peace, companion, and at the core of your very identity. Consider this question. . . How can my longings lead me to Christ or draw me nearer to Him?
