In John 4, Jesus is tired and sits down near a well while His disciples go into town to buy some food. Read the story here.

Now just imagine how weary you would feel having to put up with the disciples nonsense 24/7. Fortunately, Jesus is more interested in the woman who comes to draw water than He is in being able to relax for a few minutes.

If you’re familiar with the story, you know Jesus starts a conversation by simply asking, “Will you give me a drink?”

As they begin to talk, Jesus intentionally guides the conversation toward deep truths about the woman and about Himself. She, on the other hand, seems to want to keep the conversation at the surface. She doesn’t really want Jesus getting personal.

Do you do that? Do you try to keep Jesus from digging down to the real issue in your life?

You’ve asked God to help you control your temper, find a job, stop worrying, get over your pornography addiction or make your spouse more attentive to your needs. But maybe God wants to deal with the real issue that lies beneath each of those requests.

What if you’re angry because when others disappoint you it reminds you of how many times your father disappointed you when you were a child?

Maybe you’ve believed the lie that you’ll only feel valuable and significant if you have an important job.

Or you struggle with pornography because you replaced God with sex as the #1 priority in your life. And now sex has become an idol that has enslaved you.

Rather than deal with the real issues, we prefer to keep Jesus at arms-length where He can’t dig too deeply. We’d rather talk about which mountain is the right one to worship on instead of the fact that we’re worshiping all the wrong things in the first place: money, sex, television, media, food, clothes, cars, houses, what others think about us, etc.

What if the next time you got alone and started to pray, God interrupted you and said, “Excuse me. I know that feels very important to you, but I really think we need to talk about something else today. That thing you keep avoiding. You know what I’m talking about. Let’s get it on the table and deal with the real issue.”

What would “it” be for you? What’s the real issue?

If you know, then maybe God just brought it up and now is the time to deal with it.

If you don’t know what it is, then ask Him.