3 WAYS TO CONFRONT THE ISSUES YOU ARE DEALING WITH

Would you like to confront the issues you are dealing with? Just like the Samaritan woman, we all have issues we are dealing with. Whether it’s emotionally, physically, psychologically, or spiritually. These issues cause us to draw from wells in order to gain fulfillment and satisfaction. Unfortunately, these wells can sometimes be detrimental to us. The issues can range from failures to hidden sins to mental health.

The point is, we all have issues we are dealing with and are having a hard time getting over. As human beings, we have accustomed ourselves to faking it until we make it. This is because we fear addressing our issues in front of others for fear of ridicule, ostracism, or rejection. We can sometimes be so critical of others and vice versa. So we resort to struggling with our pains, failures, and frustrations in silence. We don’t want to expose our struggles, fears, and worries to others.

What wells are you drawing from that are hindering you from confronting the issues you are dealing with?

Do you know how to confront the issues you are dealing with? Better yet, do you know the issues you need to confront? To know this, you first have to know the wells you have been drawing from. So let me give you some examples of the wrong wells.

• Alcohal and drugs
• Entertainment- Although good, sometimes we use it to numb the pain to avoid confronting the issues we are dealing with.
• Companionship and sex
• Food
• Wealth and success
• Fame and education

These are some examples of wells you use when we don’t want to confront the issues you are dealing with. And today I want us to look at the ways that will help you confront the issues you are dealing with. To help us answer this question, let us look at the life of the Samaritan woman.

The Woman at the Well.

⁴ Now he had to go through Samaria. ⁵ So he came to a town in Samaria called Sychar, near the plot of ground Jacob had given to his son Joseph. ⁶ Jacob’s well was there, and Jesus, tired as he was from the journey, sat down by the well. It was about noon. ⁷ When a Samaritan woman came to draw water, Jesus said to her, “Will you give me a drink?” ⁸ (His disciples had gone into the town to buy food.) ⁹ The Samaritan woman said to him, “You are a Jew and I am a Samaritan woman. How can you ask me for a drink?” (For Jews do not associate with Samaritans.)

¹⁰ Jesus answered her, “If you knew the gift of God and who it is that asks you for a drink, you would have asked him and he would have given you living water.” ¹¹ “Sir,” the woman said, “you have nothing to draw with and the well is deep. Where can you get this living water? ¹² Are you greater than our father Jacob, who gave us the well and drank from it himself, as did also his sons and his livestock?”

¹³ Jesus answered, “Everyone who drinks this water will be thirsty again, ¹⁴ but whoever drinks the water I give them will never thirst. Indeed, the water I give them will become in them a spring of water welling up to eternal life.” ¹⁵ The woman said to him, “Sir, give me this water so that I won’t get thirsty and have to keep coming here to draw water.”

¹⁶ He told her, “Go, call your husband and come back.” ¹⁷ “I have no husband,” she replied. Jesus said to her, “You are right when you say you have no husband. ¹⁸ The fact is, you have had five husbands, and the man you now have is not your husband. What you have just said is quite true.” ¹⁹ “Sir,” the woman said, “I can see that you are a prophet. ²⁰ Our ancestors worshiped on this mountain, but you Jews claim that the place where we must worship is in Jerusalem.”

²¹ “Woman,” Jesus replied, “believe me, a time is coming when you will worship the Father neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem. ²² You Samaritans worship what you do not know; we worship what we do know, for salvation is from the Jews. ²³ Yet a time is coming and has now come when the true worshipers will worship the Father in the Spirit and in truth, for they are the kind of worshipers the Father seeks. ²⁴ God is spirit, and his worshipers must worship in the Spirit and in truth.” ²⁵ The woman said, “I know that Messiah” (called Christ) “is coming. When he comes, he will explain everything to us.” ²⁶ Then Jesus declared, “I, the one speaking to you—I am he.”

³⁹ Many of the Samaritans from that town believed in him because of the woman’s testimony, “He told me everything I ever did.” ⁴⁰ So when the Samaritans came to him, they urged him to stay with them, and he stayed two days. ⁴¹ And because of his words many more became believers. ⁴² They said to the woman, “We no longer believe just because of what you said; now we have heard for ourselves, and we know that this man really is the Savior of the world.”

Application

The woman at the well drew from the wrong wells because she did not want to confront the issue she was dealing with. The problem was not that she had been married 5+ times. No! The problem was that she needed validation because of her limitations. Biblical scholars believe she was a breathtakingly beautiful woman who was barren. That was why her problem was not that she could not get married, but she couldn’t stay married. And she always thought she needed to have a man by her side in order to feel whole. But she never was.

The well you keep drawing from, unfortunately, is temporary. And no matter how many times you draw from it, you will never find satisfaction. This is because it is fickle and is not your creator. The only one who can fulfill you is your Creator. He knows everything about you and so it’s only natural that He will have solutions to all the problems you are facing. Jesus knows all your problems and what is keeping you up at night and better yet, He has the Solution to all that is troubling you. But although He has the solution, He will not force Himself on you. He gave us free will and He will never violate that.

Jesus asked the Samaritan woman to bring her husband. He is all-knowing, so He obviously knew that she did not have a husband. Maybe you are wondering then why He asked her. Jesus needs us to confess our issues so that we can deal with them. The first step to healing and deliverance is confession. Through confession, we are telling God that we trust Him with our failures and our mistakes. This also tells Him we are ready to have His transformation in our lives. We have to get to the end of ourselves before God can take over. He tells us it is in our weakness that His strength is revealed.

We have a Saviour who understands our problems and issues; He dealt with some of them. From ridicule and denial to betrayal, persecution, and pain. Jesus asking you this comes from a place of love and concern. He will not ridicule you. The woman’s vulnerability and honesty brought her deliverance and transformation. She went from being bound one day to being delivered and preaching the gospel the next. So you have not gone too far off to receive redemption. Jesus is asking you today, what well have you been drawing from? Where have you been going to quench your thirst?

3 Ways that will help you confront the issues you are dealing with

Silence and solitude.

These two keys are essential in helping you confront your junk. It is in solitude that you will learn to address what you are struggling with. This is when your inner witness will reveal to you some things you need to confront. Anytime God wants to reveal to you the trauma hidden within, He first separates you from the crowd. It is when you are in isolation that God will speak to you about your trauma. Not to say He cannot speak to you when you are in a crowd (He can). But it is when you are in solitude that you will hear Him speak clearly. In our text today, we see Jesus helping the woman confront her issues by revealing to her her brokenness in her solitude. He wanted to heal her from shame, guilt and condemnation.

Jesus wants to do the same for you today. But to do that He wants you to embrace solitude and learn to be still and silent too. Are you ready? As you embrace solitude, you also need to jot down what is in your heart. This will help you have an action plan. Which brings me to my next point on how to confront the issues you are dealing with.

Journal

Journalling is instrumental to you if you want to confront the issues you are dealing with. As you write, you get to the root of the things that are troubling you and have been weighing you down. As you write your pent-up emotions and junk, you give yourself to exhale your worries and inhale the healing of God.

Prayer

Prayer is communing with God. And through prayer, you can confront the issues you are dealing with. As you pray, you realize you become vulnerable and honest with God. In your doing that, you give Him room to reveal to you what the real problem is. Alcohol is not the problem. There is a deeper problem that is causing you to overindulge in that. And that is what God wants to do for you. He wants to help you address the real root of the problem. This is the only way that healing will begin. Jesus does not want you to drink from the wrong well. He wants you to experience the true well, and that is Him. He is the Living Well. And He says when you are rooted in Him. Out of your innermost being will flow rivers of living water.

Through prayer, you give God room to help you confront your issues and also start your healing journey. As you pray, God will reveal to you who you really are.

Conclusion

Today, Jesus is standing at the door of your heart, knocking. He is asking you to let Him in and He says that if you do, He and God will come and dwell with you. Light and darkness do not cohabit and so He will do a work on you that will transform you. Jesus will get you back to the state God designed for you to begin with.

Jesus is waiting on you to surrender it all fully to Him. In total surrender, we find joy, healing, wholeness, deliverance, and completeness. Jesus cannot work on you if you don’t surrender to Him. He will not give you solutions if you are not willing to listen. His desire is for you to be set free and live in all that He gained for you. But you have to want it too. That’s why we are told that God loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, and that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have eternal life. There is that part again, belief and trust.

The Samaritan woman trusted Jesus with her pain and failures. She risked trusting a stranger she did not know with some of the deepest shameful issues she was dealing with. She knew she risked being ridiculed and looked down on because of her lifestyle. But she instead found something better- freedom and deliverance. Maybe you have been vulnerable before and it did not turn out so well. Today I want to ask you to run to Jesus. He is your Saviour and He will never let you down. Just confess to Him your struggles, your fear, your worries, and your hidden sins. He just wants to set you free and deliver you. He wants to see you delivered.

This well you keep drawing from is temporary and will never fully fill you. You will keep drawing from it and sometimes it will only leave you thirsty and confused. Instead of going to that well for a temporary fix, why not run to Jesus for a permanent transformation?

The bandages on your wound are a quick, temporary fix and if you want total healing, address it- with Jesus. Are you ready? He is not just able but willing because of the intense love He has for you. You are loved and nothing can take that away from you.