Steadfast Love - Lauren Chandler - Session 2 "The Desert"

Lauren Chandler continues the "Steadfast Love" teaching on Psalms 107.  She begins with the first scenario - "The Desert."

Session 2 Notes:

She reads Psalms 107:4-9:

"Some wandered in desert wastes, finding no way to a city to dwell in; hungry and thirsty, their soul fainted within them. Then they cried to the Lord in their trouble, and he delivered them from their distress.  He led them by a straight way till they reached a city to dwell in. Let them thank the Lord for his steadfast love, for his wondrous works to the children of man! For he satisfies the longing soul, and the hungry soul he fills with good things".

All our our desert seasons look different; not one is exactly the same.  Seasons of loneliness, longing, lamenting and crying out - a dessert place in our soul.

There is a woman in scripture who was also experiencing a dessert season.  She was making a journey to the well as recorded in John 4:1-30.  This woman was in her own dessert, seeking to be filled, seeking water, Lauren says.

There's Jesus.  Weary and tired from traveling, he's sitting at the well.  He is fully God and yet fully man.

Jesus had compassion on this Samaritan woman.  He knew that she needed not only water from the well but living water.

A call is going out to us:  "Come."  He's not waiting for us to get it all together and then come, Lauren says.  He calls to the weary, weighed down ones to come.

This Samaritan woman was considered a half-breed, not a true Jew. She was coming at the hottest part of the day.  Lauren speculates this might be because she wanted to avoid the morning where all the women would come in the coolest part of the day to draw water.
Avoid conversation, avoid the stares, the gossip and having to face other women who knew things about her.

But now, instead of the women, there's Jesus.  "Oh, great! a Rabbi of all people.  I'm sure to hear some negative comments."

The conversation begins about the physical wall.  He's a Jew. She's a Samaritan.  It quickly turns, as we know, to the spiritual wall: Jesus."  In this conversation, Jesus pinpoints her personal life, but she begins to deflect.  Isn't this exactly what we do if someone starts to get into our personal life?

What does He speak?

He speaks to her that she is worshiping the wrong thing.  Her response after this conversation is exciting.  She runs back, leaving her water jar at the well, to tell all that has just transpired.

Lauren continues telling us that "we each have our own well.  Just as Jesus met this woman at the well, He meets us at ours."

He meets us exactly where we are in our life.  

She continues to say that "He will expose those wells for our good."

During this study, we will be "finding those wells in our own life. We will be looking at those places we've dug in to to find fulfillment instead of in Jesus."

We are encouraged to not be discouraged because of those wells. Jesus will meet us at our well (just as he met the Samaritan woman).  Her prayer is that we will not be discouraged, and that we will find our fulfillment in Him and meet Him at our well.

Coming up: Session 3