The following questions are meant to help guide you through praying with a transformative story in the Gospel: A woman who is ashamed of her past meets a man who tells her everything about herself. This story can be found in John 4:4-42. It may be beneficial to journal about them, or even sit before the Tabernacle with them!
Invite the Holy Spirit to guide your time in prayer. Read the passage a few times to become familiar with the story.
The woman goes to draw water in the middle of the day ("about noon" - vs. 6). This would have been the hottest part of the day, and she would have had to have gone the entire morning without water. It was customary that people would draw water early in the morning when it was still cool. With this in mind, it is likely that the woman did not want to be seen - that she was ashamed of herself and of what people thought of her. Have you ever experienced a shame like this? A shame where you did not want to be around people or a certain person? What was that like? Bring it to Jesus. ...
For the whole conversation, Jesus is very attentive to the woman. After a few minutes of her putting up walls, he tells the her 'everything she has done', and it leaves the woman in awe. Imagine that you are the person meeting Jesus at the well. After a few minutes of you being closed off to conversation with him, he looks upon you with compassion and tells you everything you have done. What would he say to you? ...
Jesus tells the woman, "Everyone who drinks this water will be thirsty again, but whoever drinks the water I shall give will never thirst." Where in your life have you settled for 'water that will make you thirsty again' (things that were short lived - chasing after pleasures, emotional fillers, selfish things, etc.)? Call to mind specific memories, and remember that he loves you... In those moments, what was Jesus trying to say? What was he attempting to give you in place of the short-lived pleasure you thought you wanted? ...
Jesus tells the woman, "The hour is coming, and is now here, when true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth". What do you think he means by this? How is he asking you to worship him in spirit and truth rather than merely at a place? ...
Verse 28 says the woman, 'left her jar and went into town'. The sole reason she was on that mountain was to gather water, but upon meeting Jesus, she abandons that original purpose. What is Jesus asking you to leave behind as he tells you more about who he's made you to be? ...
After the woman encounters Jesus, she cannot help but to run into town - to the people she was originally trying to avoid - and tell everyone about this man she just met. Do you have a desire to share Jesus with others? Does that idea make you nervous? Excited? Empowered? Indifferent? What does the idea of "living a life of mission" make you feel? ...
In verse 5, it says that Jesus "had to" pass through Samaria. Geographically, Jews would often pass by Samaria to avoid coming into contact with the Samaritan people - it would have been out of Jesus's way to go the way he went. What is significant about the fact that he "had to" go this way and encounter this woman? Do you believe Jesus wants to go out of his way to meet you where you're at? Tell him about it. ...