The first person that was told that Jesus was the Messiah was a woman.  And not just any woman – a Samaritan woman!  Jews didn’t talk to Samaritans.  Why did Jesus choose a woman to tell?  Why this woman?  We aren’t told.  Jesus did a lot of “firsts” with women.  It was highly unusual for a rabbi to have women disciples; Jesus did.  It was a woman that Jesus sent to tell the disciples that He was alive.  He allowed women to touch him (washed his feet with her hair); to be forgiven (Jn 8 – the adulterous woman); to be present at the cross.   God also used many women in the Old Testament:  Deborah, Ruth, Eve, Sarah, Rebecca, Rachael, Rahab, and on and on we could go.  Why did God choose women? John 4:25-26 (HCSB) 25 The woman said to Him, “I know that Messiah is coming” (who is called Christ). “When He comes, He will explain everything to us.” 26 “I am [He],” Jesus told her, “the One speaking to you.” Women are special.  God doesn’t view one person as more special than another.  God views their character and says, I can use that person.  God views the hearts of Jews and Greeks and males and females. God is more interested in who you are than what you do. Why didn’t God use Moses while Moses was still in pharaoh’s house?  Moses had prestige.  Moses had power.  Moses had influence.  Moses had self-confidence.  God didn’t use Moses until Moses had spent 40 years in a desert and had lost all those “important” characteristics. Why didn’t Jesus tell a queen or a “pure” female example that He was the Messiah?  Why an adulterous woman who was living in sin?  Moses and the Samaritan woman were available and useable?  Are you useable?  Have you lost enough of yourself to be able to be filled by the Holy Spirit? John 4:16-20 (HCSB) 16 “Go call your husband,” He told her, “and come back here.” 17 “I don’t have a husband,” she answered. “You have correctly said, ‘I don’t have a husband,’ ” Jesus said. 18 “For you’ve had five husbands, and the man you now have is not your husband. What you have said is true.” 19 “Sir,” the woman replied, “I see that You are a prophet. 20 Our fathers worshiped on this mountain, yet you [Jews] say that the place to worship is in Jerusalem.” This woman had a bad past and a not-so-good present.  When Jesus got personal, she tried to change the subject.   I meet so many people who live in their past.  It isn’t until we allow Jesus to sort through our past that we can let go of it and live in the present.  Your past helped to shape you into the person you are today.  Let God use your past, but don’t let it dominate and paralyze your present and your future.  (Read Beth Moore’s Get Out of that Pit!) John 4:28-30 (HCSB) 28 Then the woman left her water jar, went into town, and told the men, 29 “Come, see a man who told me everything I ever did! Could this be the Messiah?” 30 They left the town and made their way to Him. She left her water jar.  She probably didn’t have but one.  She came to the well at noon to avoid the other women who came when it was cooler, but she is not ashamed to tell the town that the Messiah is at the well! God does that.  When we surrender everything we have and everything that we are, He takes away our worries about mundane things like water jars.  He takes away our fears – fears of people and their opinions of us.  He replaces our worries with a confidence that is only born of knowing that He is in control.  He replaces our fears with a confidence that knows that God can do anything and that He will provide for us. Have you surrendered everything you are and everything that you have to Jesus?  Are you still trying to take care of yourself?  Are you still afraid of people’s opinions and actions?  You don’t have to take care of yourself.  You don’t have to be afraid.  Jesus is standing there waiting to deliver you.  You only have to pray.  What is holding you back? *O, Lord, I don’t know the future, but I can sure look at my past and see that Your  hand was always upon my life:  protecting me, guiding me, growing me.  Just as You did Moses and the Samaritan Woman.  Use me.  Take my past and sort through it.  Cause me to discard what is useless and to take forward those character traits that will make me a Godly woman.  I surrender all that I am and all that I have and all that I want to become.  I give myself to You.  You are the potter and I am the clay.  Mold me, break me, and use me.  Amen. “All the way my Savior leads me.  What have I to fear or dread?”