Wednesday, June 20, 2012

June 21, 2012

"When a Samaritan woman came to draw water, Jesus said to her, “Will you give me a drink?”  (His disciples had gone into the town to buy food.)  The Samaritan woman said to him, “You are a Jew and I am a Samaritan woman. How can you ask me for a drink?” (For Jews do not associate with Samaritans.) Jesus answered her, “If you knew the gift of God and who it is that asks you for a drink, you would have asked him and he would have given you living water.”  “Sir,” the woman said, “you have nothing to draw with and the well is deep. Where can you get this living water? Are you greater than our father Jacob, who gave us the well and drank from it himself, as did also his sons and his livestock?” Jesus answered, “Everyone who drinks this water will be thirsty again,  but whoever drinks the water I give them will never thirst. Indeed, the water I give them will become in them a spring of water welling up to eternal life.” The woman said to him, “Sir, give me this water so that I won’t get thirsty and have to keep coming here to draw water.” John 4:7-15

John Maxwell gives this helpful insight into understanding change:
People change when they …
Hurt enough they have to,

Learn enough they want to, and

Receive enough that they are able to.

Followers of Christ are in the life-change business! That is because God is in the life-change business. No one can come in contact with His transformational power and remain the same!

I am giving some Biblical example of lives that changed when Jesus approached them at change points in their lives.

Yesterday, I wrote about Zacchaeus. Today I call your attention to the woman at the well. When she encountered Jesus she was definitely hurting. The fact that she was coming to the well during the noon hour was evidence of that. All the "respectable" ladies came early in the morning and later in the afternoon to avoid the heat. But the "bad girls" came during the middle of the day to avoid the shame and scorn that would be heaped upon them if they met people there.

I think it is safe to assume that Jesus was waiting at the well during the middle of the day for that very reason! He knew that who ever He met would be a hurting, needy person who was at a change point in their life.

Do you know some one who is hurting? Will you be willing to meet them at their change point?

Once Jesus connected with her hurt, He then shared help and hope with her by giving her the gospel.

Are you prepared to share the good news of the gospel with a hurting person?

Jesus connected with her hurt and shared His hope and finally, He showed her how she could receive the power to change. He identified with her thirst and offered he living water that would satisfy her thirst forever!

She changed because she hurt enough that she wanted to. She changed because Jesus was there to give her the knowledge that she wanted to. And, she received the power from Jesus that transformed her.

She hurt, she hoped and then she received Him! That is how change happens!

When was the last time God was able to use you to bring His change to a hurting person?