9 Therefore the Samaritan woman said to Him, “How is it that You, being a Jew, ask me for a drink since I am a Samaritan woman?” (For Jews have no dealings with Samaritans.)
10 Jesus answered and said to her, “If you knew the gift of God, and who it is who says to you, ‘Give Me a drink,’ you would have asked Him, and He would have given you living water.”
11 She said to Him, “Sir, You have nothing to draw with and the well is deep; where then do You get that living water?
12 “You are not greater than our father Jacob, are You, who gave us the well, and drank of it himself and his sons and his cattle?”
13 Jesus answered and said to her, “Everyone who drinks of this water will thirst again;
14 but whoever drinks of the water that I will give him shall never thirst; but the water that I will give him will become in him a well of water springing up to eternal life.” John 4:7-14 (Emphasis added.)
Deliverance follows misery; today’s devotion titled “the gift of God” follows yesterday’s devotion titled “the wrath of God”. The Heidelberg Catechism is divided in three parts: “THE FIRST PART–OF THE MISERY OF MAN”, THE SECOND PART–OF MAN’S DELIVERANCE”, and “THE THIRD PART–OF THANKFULNESS”.
Why can’t we skip “the wrath of God” to get to “the gift of God”?
God wants us to be humble.
Isaiah 2:11
“The proud look of man will be abased And the loftiness of man will be humbled, And the LORD alone will be exalted in that day.”
Isaiah 66:2
“For My hand made all these things, Thus all these things came into being,” declares the LORD. “But to this one I will look, To him who is humble and contrite of spirit, and who trembles at My word.”
Matthew 23:12
“Whoever exalts himself shall be humbled; and whoever humbles himself shall be exalted.”
James 4:6
But He gives a greater grace. Therefore it says, ” GOD IS OPPOSED TO THE PROUD, BUT GIVES GRACE TO THE HUMBLE.”
God wants to contrast the deliverance (“the gift of God”) with the misery (“the wrath of God”), so we will better fear the LORD, so we will better believe in the LORD, and so we will better trust the LORD.
At the time God delivered Israel through the Red Sea, God made Israel look at the dead Egyptians on the shore (“the wrath of God”).
“Thus the LORD saved Israel that day from the hand of the Egyptians, and Israel saw the Egyptians dead on the seashore. When Israel saw the great power which the LORD had used against the Egyptians, the people feared the LORD, and they believed in the LORD and in His servant Moses.” Exodus 14:30-31.
God wants to contrast the deliverance (“the gift of God”) with the misery (“the wrath of God”), so we will better understand and better appreciate the deliverance (“the gift of God”).
“What if God, although willing to demonstrate His wrath and to make His power known, endured with much patience vessels of wrath prepared for destruction? And He did so to make known the riches of His glory upon vessels of mercy, which He prepared beforehand for glory, even us, whom He also called, not from among Jews only, but also from among Gentiles.” Romans 9:22-24.
Question and Answer 2 of The Heidelberg Catechism summarizes it.
Question 2. How many things are necessary for thee to know, that thou, enjoying this comfort, mayest live and die happily?
Answer. Three; the first, how great my sins and miseries are; the second, how I may be delivered from all my sins and miseries; the third, how I shall express my gratitude to God for such deliverance.
Reformed Doctrine Daily Devotions 