The Samaritan woman in John 4 tried to fill the emptiness in her life with one relationship after another. But it didn’t work. If we try to find in anyone else what can only be found in Christ, we end up placing so much stress on the relationship that it breaks under the weight. Nobody else can take Jesus’ place. Nobody else is qualified or equipped to step into His place. No relationship will ever be the same as the one we could have with Him. Jesus said to the Samaritan woman, ‘You have had five husbands, and the man you now have is not your husband’ (v.18 NIV). One of the first things we need to do if we’re hurting is to break the pattern of using other people to dull the pain of the God-shaped void in our lives. The only thing that will work is to allow God to treat the cause. When we’re hurting, we might also find we’re becoming more and more dependent on others to create a feeling of wholeness in life, rather than depending on God. Clinging to people is very different from loving them. It’s not a declaration of love for them, it’s more like a crying out of our need for them. It can make the other person feel guilty. It’s taking, instead of giving. Jesus quenched the Samaritan woman’s thirst with His Word, saying, ‘Whoever drinks the water I give them will never thirst. Indeed, the water I give them will become in them a spring of water welling up to eternal life’ (v.14 NIV). And she went back home totally changed. That’s what Jesus does. Listen to her testimony: ‘Come, see a man who told me everything’ (v.29 NIV). And what Jesus did for her, He’ll do for us too.
