John 4:7-15
A woman from Samaria came to draw water. Jesus said to her, "Give me a drink." (For his disciples had gone away into the city to buy food.)
The Samaritan woman said to him, "How is it that you, a Jew, ask for a drink from me, a woman of Samaria?" (For Jews have no dealings with Samaritans.) Jesus answered her, "If you knew the gift of God, and who it is that is saying to you, 'Give me a drink,' you would have asked him, and he would have given you living water." The woman said to him, "Sir, you have nothing to draw water with, and the well is deep. Where do you get that living water? Are you greater than our father Jacob? He gave us the well and drank from it himself, as did his sons and his livestock."
Jesus said to her, "Everyone who drinks of this water will be thirsty again, but whoever drinks of the water that I will give him will never be thirsty again. The water that I will give him will become in him a spring of water welling up to eternal life." The woman said to him, "Sir, give me this water, so that I will not be thirsty or have to come here to draw water."
This is a story with which most any church goer is pretty familiar. Jesus teaches us how to worship him, in spirit and in truth. But in my reading of Desiring God (which is a must-read, by the way!!), Piper used this passage to comment on prayer as our fuel for joy in God, and it really struck me. I could hardly finish reading through this paragraph before I was so driven to worship my God in prayer...and to ask! Because the God of the universe knows me and is aquatinted with what is going on in my life and I had to come to him! He is the living water. In Him is the power for that work thing you're struggling with, or that seemingly unmanageable toddler or fill in the blank. In Him alone is the power to do all things for His glory (2 Cor 9:8).
Please read, and pray to the GOD who can {whatever the need, whatever the situation}! Piper writes,
"...'If you just knew the gift of God and who I am, you would ask Me - you would pray to Me!' There is a direct correlation between not knowing Jesus well and not asking much from Him...'If you knew who was talking to you, you would ask Me!' A prayerless Christian is like a bus driver trying alone to push his bus out of a rut because he doesn't know Clark Kent is on board. 'If you knew, you would ask.' A prayerless Christian is like having your room wallpapered with Saks Fifth Avenue gift certificates but always shopping at Goodwill because you can't read. 'If you knew the gift of God and who it is that speaks to you, you would ask - YOU WOULD ASK!'"
Boom.
