Hundreds of years ago, Hagar gave God a name – “The God Who Sees Me.” (Genesis 16:13)
In her most difficult place, God made it clear that Hagar was noticed and cared for personally.
The Psalm that we have continued to make reference to through our study so far–Psalm 139–makes it clear that we, too, are precious in God’s sight. He knows us. He cares.
This week, we took a deeper look at the story about Jesus meeting a Samaritan woman at a well in Samaria from John 4. I hope that you are able to take time to watch our group session video below where I share some thoughts about this. (So sorry that the video is so long this week, too. I want to keep them between 5 and 10 minutes in length–hopefully, closer to 5 minutes, but this week, I just got so excited about John 4.)
Some questions that I asked in the video:
Why do *you* think that Jesus “had” to go through Samaria?
Based on John 4, make a list of character traits of the woman Jesus meets. What is she like? What might be the things she struggles with? Why was she at the well at mid-day?
How does it affect you to realize that Jesus “had to go through Samaria” to meet this woman in the middle of the day in the middle of nowhere? What does that say to you about God?
What is the “Divine AND” that Heidi spoke of in the video?
What “Divine AND” are do you want to trust God for in your life?
Can you relate at all to the shame that this woman was experiencing–the shame that kept her from going to the well during the typical times of the day and the shame that might have caused her to want to never have to come to the well ever again?
After her encounter with Jesus, what did the woman do? Like the woman, is there any chance that God may (one day) call you to minister to others after he brings you out?
Do you think God has turned his back on you and stopped listening or caring? What does Scripture say about this?
Do you try to perform to win God’s heart? Or do you struggle with thinking God will never accept you? The truth is, you can’t do anything to win His heart. You can’t woo Him. Why? Because you already have His heart! You are His bride! He has chosen you. He wooed you! You love Him only because He first loved you!
The woman thought she wanted water. The conversation with Jesus proved she wanted–and needed–something deeper.
You may think you want to be thin, but is it possible that you want–and need–something deeper as well?
What do you suppose it is?
God used the woman’s need for physical water to lead her to an encounter with him to offer what she really needed.
Is it possible that God is using your physical challenges with food and your body to lead you to an encounter with him to offer you what you really need?
God knows all about you.
Your history.
Your shame.
Your hopes
Your dreams
He knows your TRUE need, like the woman.
He chooses NOW for an encounter with you.
The story of the Samaritan woman, focuses our attention on heart hunger, certainly. The authors give us an opportunity to process all three hunger types: heart hunger, head hunger, and stomach hunger. What has it been like for you to experience each? On page 62, the authors have a chart for us to record experiences we have with each kind of hunger. Take some time to fill this chart out.
One of the things you may want to consider is the fact that while stomach hunger may seem to be the most straight forward, we nevertheless often experience emotion in response to it. Some of us, when our stomachs are empty, find fear rises up, we get agitated, or panicky. It can be really helpful to sit in this physical hunger for a few minutes and ask the Lord to show you what is going on. Take time to journal about it and to tell yourself the truth (renew your mind) about how you are *safe* being hungry and that God is meeting you in that place.
I would love to hear from you any of your thoughts that you have in response to the questions here or whatever God lays on your heart to share.
Do you remember being a child, falling down and skinning your knee? Do you remember bringing your wound to your mom or your dad, being comforted, having your tears wiped away and then asked to come into the bathroom where the first aid supplies were brought out? This experience may have been met with not just a little bit of fear and trepidation. Why? Because we knew that our mom or dad intended to clean our wound so we could feel better and avoid infection. But what was sure to happen before it ever felt better?
It would sting.
I believe we have come to that part of our study where our Abba Father calls us to bring Him our wounds. He intends to comfort us with his love, yes. He delights over us with singing! He will wipe our tears if we will let him.
But he also intends to do a deep cleansing of our wounds and this brings pain. This journey can be challenging–especially when we begin to allow him to put that “antiseptic” of the Holy Spirit…that purifying cleansing agent of his holy fire…against our raw, bleeding “skin.”
During our first week of our HEAL – Healthy Eating & Abundant Living – study, we began to see what God says about us in Psalm 139–that we are fearfully and wonderfully made. You dared to step into the life and many of you have linked up with an accountability partner to share this leg of your journey. There is still time to do that for the next 4 weeks! Don’t give up on the idea. It will be an invaluable experience to walk side-by-side with someone during the rest of our study.
Last week, we looked some at the mechanics of this journey–
This week, we go deeper, taking steps even closer to the heart of God. Inviting him to show us where we need that cleansing of our wounds, of our sin, of our heartaches. There is great reward for vulnerability, for surrendering to his loving touch, but it doesn’t mean it is easy.
Here is the preview video for this week. Again, if you are an email subscriber, you may have to visit the blog to see the video.
The authors point out that we all have a hunger within that craves to be fed. There is a sanctified ache inside of each of us, placed there by God, that hungers for love. It cries out to be satisfied. The authors call this “love hunger.” We all have this love hunger, but we each get to choose how we will deal with it.
As I mention in the video above, we get to have a look at the story of the woman at the well this week. Again, I urge you to pray that God will make this a fresh experience for you and that your reading of this portion of John 4 will not be diminished by familiarity with this amazing passage. Invite the Holy Spirit to show you this passage afresh and then, perhaps, read it in a translation of the bible that you don’t usually use. Bible Gateway has all kinds of translations you can pick from. I chose the message for this week’s study.
The woman at the well is definitely hungry for something. Coming to the well at mid-day when the heat was the worst and no one else would be likely to be there proves that she was a social outcast. Have you ever felt that way? I have. Jesus meets her in her place of need and asks her some penetrating questions. As you look at this story, note how she deflects his questions. Note what she has done to try to feed her love hunger. Can you identify at all?
The authors ask us this week, “What is your heart hungry for?”
“How has your need for security and significance not been met?”
“How have you responded to this loss?”
“How have you relied on food or a lack of food” (I would add, appearance and perfection) “to comfort you?”
We are challenged with another passage in Psalm 139, verses 23 and 24. Will we boldly invite God to search our hearts and know our thoughts? Will we welcome him to show us what is in our hearts? We know that he has what we need like the children that we are, coming to our good Heavenly Father to get the “medicine” that we need…that will bring healing, but that we know will sting (sometimes, horribly) before it gets better.
Through this discussion in the text, the authors point out three kinds of hunger. Be sure to spend time in this. We will be talking about this at the blog this week. Even if you don’t have the book, you will be able to be encouraged in your journey, so I do hope you will come along!
This week, complete the Personal Study portion of Lesson 3.
Ask God to continue to show you any lies that you believe and to spend time renewing your mind about these things. If you aren’t sure what that might look like, please post here or ask your accountability partner for ideas. You can also go to Barb’s Blog and do a search for renewing of the mind material. She does a great job teaching what this means. You have heard me say it before, but I highly recommend Truth Journaling.
Do you have a renewing of the mind goal? Would it be helpful for you to develop one or refine or redefine your renewing of the mind goal?
Begin to evaluate each time you consider eating. Ask yourself, “Which type of hunger is demanding to be fed right now? Heart hunger? Head hunger? Or Stomach hunger?”
What are some things you can do to feed Heart hunger so that it is being nourished with what it truly needs?
What are some things you can do about Head hunger so that it doesn’t lead you to eat when your body doesn’t need food? If you struggle with under-eating, take note of what Allie and Judy say about head hunger being helpful. If you aren’t sure if you fit into that category, ask the Lord. I believe he will show you.
I urge you to bring your wounds to your Abba Father this week. Let him wipe your tears, embrace you with his love, delight over you with singing and, yes, cleanse the wounds you have. It will sting. Even being open with him about the wounds will hurt some. But it is worth it.
What did God show you in your reading of the story in John 4?
Please feel free to share any other responses to the questions in the personal study in Lesson 3. I would love to hear how God is using this material in your life!
And a woman was there who had been subject to bleeding for twelve years.
She had suffered a great deal under the care of many doctors
and had spent all she had, yet instead of getting better she grew worse.
When she heard about Jesus,
she came up behind him in the crowd and touched his cloak,
because she thought, “If I just touch his clothes, I will be healed.”
Immediately her bleeding stopped
and she felt in her body that she was freed from her suffering. At once Jesus realized that power had gone out from him.
He turned around in the crowd and asked, “Who touched my clothes?” “You see the people crowding against you,” his disciples answered,
“and yet you can ask, ‘Who touched me?’ “ But Jesus kept looking around to see who had done it.
Then the woman, knowing what had happened to her,
came and fell at his feet and, trembling with fear,
told him the whole truth.
He said to her, “Daughter, your faith has healed you.
Go in peace and be freed from your suffering.”
– Mark 5:25-34
“God’s way is the way of faith and freedom. When we bring our struggles with food, eating, and weight to him in honest surrender, we can be restored. For this to happen we must allow God to lead us to a place where we are:
Free to risk–letting go of the past in order to live unencumbered in the present (1 Peter 5:6,7)
Free to change–being transformed from the inside out by the renewing of our minds (Rom. 12:2)
Free to trust–trusting God and the way he made us (1 Cor. 6:19)
Free to love–loving as Christ loves us (John 13:34)
As we act in faith and surrender to this kind of freedom, we will experience a new relationship with God, with ourselves, and with our bodies.”
——— This idea of being free to risk has really hit me afresh. We talked about this in our Thin Within online support group chat the other night. If we give our coping mechanisms–if we dare to reach for the hem of Jesus’ robe even while we lay hemorraging in the dust–what if he doesn’t choose to heal? What if he doesn’t choose to change me?
The hemorraging woman in Mark 5 believed that just a touch of Jesus’ robe was all she needed. In that act of faith, I wonder if she got more than what she bargained for–God’s power surged through her in a burst of healing. She had risked everything she had left–all her hope, all her dignity (if she had any left)–to weave through the crowd even though the culture had declared her “unclean” for years. She had tried everything else–and had always come up with dashed hopes. She had to be free to risk…this time the last of her hope as well as everything else. With the last bit of daring she could muster she lurched for the hem of his robe–even through the crowd of people, all who hoped to get closer to him…
As she risked it all, dared to put “all her eggs in this basket,” she experienced transformation. But in order to do that, she had to be willing to risk losing it all…again.
When we come to the Lord with our disordered eating, and choose to change the way we cope with anger, with frustration, and with all our other emotions…when we willingly surrender the way we have turned to food in order to cope, we take a huge risk. How will we cope now?
We begin to see the truth–the truth that sets us free–that our issues with food, eating, weight aren’t about food–not really. It is about something so much deeper and thus, it has the power to hurt so much more profoundly. What IF I hope and am disappointed? What if I am left…hungry…I mean with my soul hungering yet?
IS it worth the risk?
I wonder…had the bleeding woman not been healed if she would have regreted the act of lungeing for Jesus’ robe. I wonder if, in spite of disappointment, there would have been something in her that would have rested in resolution. Somehow, I don’t think she would have regreted taking the risk, even if things had turned out differently.
But things didn’t turn out differently. She was healed.
Am I willing to let go of the past in order to live unencumbered in the present? That means letting go of the way food has comforted me, been a companion for me, numbed me to anger and pain…been the focus of my Saturday nights and celebrations. Am I willing to let go of all the “been there done thats” that have come before and believe that God is even now doing a new thing? Am I willing to risk?
Are you?
I challenge you to journal a prayer about your willingness (or lack of). Ask God to meet you where you are just as he met the bleeding woman.
NOTE: I am leaving for DisneyWorld early tomorrow morning. My daughter and I are meeting up with my dear friend, Jan, and her daughter for 5 days in the happiest place on earth! If I don’t have a chance to blog while I am gone, I will see you when I return!
