The account of the Samaritan woman who meets Jesus at Jacob’s well is well-known. Just like the Samaritan woman, we must face our faults, confess our frailties, and believe that Jesus will heal us In John 4, Jesus tells her about herself — the hurt, the sin, and the shame she lived with all because she’s looking for love in all the wrong places.
Face it. The first step to healing is to admit there’s a problem. Obviously, you wouldn’t bother to seek a diagnosis or treatment from a doctor unless you recognize something is wrong, right? The Samaritan woman was not happy in her life, but she had no hope for anything different than the destruction she’d known. Until Jesus. I see this daily in the lives of the men and women at New Life for Adults and Youth, the program my parents started in 1971 to reach the addicted, abused, and homeless in the United States. (More about New Life for Adults & Youth) The people we reach must see they need a change, admit their way of living isn’t working, and be introduced to the same hope found in this well encounter. And they must be willing to be carried to safety.
Therefore confess your sins to each other and pray for each other so that you may be healed. The prayer of a righteous person is powerful and effective. (James 5:16, NIV)
Deal with it. “Action is a great restorer and builder of confidence. Inaction is not only the result, but the cause, of fear.” -Norman Vincent Peale
Taking that next step from the recognition to the remedy is no small thing. Anyone who’s resolved to get healthy but lets the treadmill continue to be a place to hang clothes can tell you nothing changes if you camp out on the first step of “admitting you have a problem.” If awareness never triggers action, don’t expect to see any sort of life-alteration. Take your spiritual temperature. Are you seeing the need for a spiritual makeover but don’t have the discipline to do the work? Ask God for the motivation to get moving and surround yourself with like-minded people.
Transformation is made a bit less uncomfortable when we have the support of others who are working hard to improve themselves mentally, emotionally, physically, and spiritually. Find your tribe, people you can talk things through with, someone to hold you accountable when your discomfort would prefer you forget or minimize the situation that led to a come-to-Jesus meeting at the well.
Share it. The Samaritan woman saw her sin for what it was: a living death. Shame is a destructive, consuming, cancerous state that eats us alive. We are dead but still breathing. It feels as though there is no escape. I’m sure it seemed that way to the woman who had five husbands and a lover. But Jesus looked right at her, straight through her, and showed her she deserved better. He told her that the relief she was hoping for, the prophesied Messiah, had come. “I am he.” This Jewish carpenter disclosed His identity to a Samaritan woman and revealed to her that she was made for more. After facing her sin, confessing her weakness, healing began and something amazing happened. She spread the word of her encounter. She was different and those who had looked on her with scorn and rejection had to see it and admit that a miracle had happened. And if God cares about someone like her, the prophecy must be true.
God will do the same through your testimony as He did when the Samaritan woman shared her experience with others.
Jesus introduced her to “living water” that will never run dry; He introduced Himself and showed her a kind of love she longed for but had never seen. The Teacher offered her a remedy, which she could have refused. Many do to this day, and for them, nothing changes. But for those who respond with “give me this water,” there is a cleansing, refreshing, life-sustaining, and soul-satisfying encounter with the Messiah.
“Many of the Samaritans from that town believed in him because of the woman’s testimony” and searched for Jesus to confirm her claims.
“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.” (John 4:39, 42, NIV)
This is how souls are saved today — through the testimony of people like you who have been changed because you admitted your need for God, acted on that realization through your choices, and told others where to get that eternal thirst-quenching water that sustains and strengthens you.
