READING: 1 Kings 4-6, John 4:27-45
So much of this familiar story is amazing. An outcast woman—a woman married five times and living with a sixth man—became a follower of Christ and a powerful witness to His name. It’s likely she came to the well in the heat of the day to avoid others who saw her as an immoral woman—but Jesus, the Son of God, met her there. Her life would never be the same after Jesus gave her “living water.”
In fact, she returned to her town and testified to them, “He told me everything I ever did” (John 4:39). That’s an intriguing evangelistic strategy that might not have caught my attention by the words themselves. I don’t know that I would want to go out to meet a man who knows everything I’ve ever done. After all, what’s attractive about having someone read the depths of your heart? It must have been, then, that this woman’s enthusiasm for having met Jesus so transformed her that the people wanted to meet Jesus and hear more.
And hear more, they did, directly from Jesus. When they heard from Him, “many more believed because of what he said. And they told the woman, ‘We no longer believe because of what you said, since we have heard for ourselves and know that this really is the Savior of the world’”(John 4:41-42). So, God used an immoral woman to start the process of bringing a town to Jesus. That’s amazing.
PRAYER: “God, please use me to direct others to You.”
TOMORROW’S READING: 1 Kings 7:1-8:21, John 4:46-5:15
