TODAY'S DEVOTIONAL
A TRANSFORMED LIFE
Friday, 31 May 2019
John 4 : 27-42
“…for [now] we have heard Him for ourselves and know [with confident assurance] that this One is truly the Savior of [all] the world.” -John 4:42[AMP]
The salvation of the Samaritan woman is the focus of John chapter 4. Samaria was a place sandwiched between Judea and Galilee and one had to cross through to get to either of these places. But Samaritans being a mixed tribe, the Jews did not want to have any dealings with them. They were looked down upon by the Jews because of the difference in their culture and worship. Besides in those times, men wouldn’t speak to women in the streets. In this context, the disciples found it strange when Jesus talked with this Samaritan woman! But we see that it led to the deliverance of this woman and the city for Jesus!
Deliverance of the Samaritan Woman
This Samaritan woman was an outcast, disliked and marked as immoral - an unmarried woman living with the sixth man in a row. To Jesus, she was a person who needed the love of God to deliver her. As a result of Jesus’ conversation, she understood God’s love. John 4:13-14 says, “Jesus answered and said to her, “Everyone who drinks of this water will thirst again; 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.” Her understanding of Jesus builds up from a Jew to a prophet and finally to the Messiah and we see her experience the deliverance which springs up as a well of eternal life in her.
Jesus breaks the cultural barrier so that a needy soul would obtain salvation. The delivered Samaritan woman became the proclaimer of the Good News! God still uses women today in building His Kingdom!
Deliverance of the City
The true testimony of this woman become the living water to city of Samaria. John 4:29: “Come; see a man who told me all the things that I have done! Can this be the Christ (the Messiah, the Anointed)?” She who was once marked immoral is now opened up to the same people who disliked her which made the people to leave their city and come to Jesus. They believed in Him and trusted Him as their Savior because of what the woman said! Subsequently, on their request Jesus remained with them for two more days and they heard from Jesus. Many more believed in Him and testified: “It is no longer because of what you said that we believe, for we have heard for ourselves and know that this One is indeed the Savior of the world.” (John 4:42)
Jesus still reaches out to the downtrodden, the outcasts and the “nobodies” of this world and offers them His salvation!
Transformed lives
From hearing the Words of Jesus, a person like the Samaritan woman was transformed - a spring of water welling up within her to eternal life. A city like Samaria received the Savior and turned to the living GOD! Jesus’ ministering to those outcasts of the Jewish society (the Samaritans) reveals that all people are valuable to God! If you too decide to receive Jesus and His Words into your life, your life will be transformed!
In Matthew 11: 28 Jesus said: “Come to Me, all who are weary and heavily burdened [by religious rituals that provide no peace], and I will give you rest [refreshing your souls with salvation].
Count on it:
“And Christ himself is the means by
which our sins are forgiven, and not our
sins only, but also the sins of everyone.”
-1 John 2:2 [GNT]
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