Jesus Meets: The Samaritan Woman

John 4:29,39 (NIV)s —

‘‘Come, see a man who told me everything I ever did. Could this be the Messiah?”

‘Many of the Samaritans from that town believed in him because of the woman’s testimony: “He told me everything I ever did.”

Confession: I don’t always find it easy to share my faith. Sometimes I lack the boldness required to openly speak about my relationship with Jesus. And sometimes I’m just too busy or too apathetic to initiate the conversation. Maybe it’s just me? Here’s a woman who is credited with bringing ‘many’ to Jesus, I feel she might have something to teach us (me)…

‘Many of the Samaritans’ —

The Samaritans were the very last people that the religious Jews expected to encounter the Messiah. And yet this doesn’t appear to be a consideration when this woman openly shares her story with half the population on her town. How often do we hold back from sharing our faith with people because we think they’re not the ‘type’ of person who’d be interested?

 ‘believed in him’ —

The woman’s witness points them to Jesus. I know I can get hung up on whether my life is a suitable advertisement for faith in Jesus. Again, this doesn’t seem to be on the woman’s evangelism check-list. Her life was a mess and she’d broken all the rules. Maybe I’m too concerned about how I’m coming across when really what I need to do is simply point people to Jesus?

‘the woman’s testimony’—

Despite my confession, there have been times when I was so full of courage and conviction that sharing my faith felt like an overflow of what God was doing in my life. As I’ve pondered this meeting between Jesus and the Samaritan woman, I’ve settled on the conclusion that the best way to share my faith is in the context of my own experience of meeting Jesus for the first time. Not everyone will agree with your theology but no-one can argue with your story.

Prayer - Lord Jesus I pray that today you’d give me an opportunity to share my testimony with someone who doesn’t know you. Help me to be open to who that might be and give me the courage to tell my story.