“God’s ultimate goal for your life on earth is not comfort but character development. He wants you to grow up spiritually and become like Christ.” (Rick Warren)
John
4:7-15, Common English Bible
7 A
Samaritan woman came to the well to draw water. Jesus said to her, “Give
me some water to drink.” 8 His
disciples had gone into the city to buy him some food.
9 The
Samaritan woman asked, “Why do you, a Jewish man, ask for something to drink
from me, a Samaritan woman?” (Jews and Samaritans didn’t associate with each
other.)
10 Jesus
responded, “If you recognized God’s gift and who is saying to you, ‘Give
me some water to drink,’ you would be asking him and he would give you living
water.”
11 The
woman said to him, “Sir, you don’t have a bucket and the well is deep. Where
would you get this living water? 12 You
aren’t greater than our father Jacob, are you? He gave this well to us, and he
drank from it himself, as did his sons and his livestock.”
13 Jesus
answered, “Everyone who drinks this water will be thirsty again, 14 but
whoever drinks from the water that I will give will never be thirsty again. The
water that I give will become in those who drink it a spring of water that
bubbles up into eternal life.”
15 The
woman said to him, “Sir, give me this water, so that I will never be thirsty
and will never need to come here to draw water.”
There are a few
important points to be aware of in the above story:
This
woman came to gather water during the hottest part of the day (noon) by herself
instead of when the other women would have come in the cool of the morning.
Jesus
showed this woman the importance of His presence as a Jewish rabbi by
respecting her enough to carefully listen, acknowledging, and responding to her
life challenges as a despised Samaritan woman.
Jesus
uses the symbolism of “living water” while the Samaritan woman is talking about
actual water.
The
Samaritan woman was a broken and lonely woman that was mentally processing
through all Jesus had told her. Jesus was a good interruption to the Samaritan
woman’s life and task of gathering water at the well.
Questions are a great
way to bring out the real issue in a conversation. They show desire to learn
more about an issue. In fact, Jesus answered more than 300 questions in the
gospels. He answered a few of them directly or with the use of parables
(fictitious stories with moral lessons).
Listening does not
always need to be actively offering advice, but should also include offering
silence.
· Let
people finish speaking before you try to answer them. That way you will not
embarrass yourself and look foolish. (Proverbs 18:13,
Easy-to-Read Version)
· Listen,
open your ears, harness your desire to speak, and don’t get worked up into a
rage so easily, my brothers and sisters. (James
1:19, the Voice)
Life is full of
interruptions that can be opportunities to witness of the care and compassion
of Jesus (if you are on the lookout for them). This is called “interruptible
compassion.”
Your testimony can be
a powerful, courageous tool in telling others of the difference Jesus has made
in your life. Make sure you are authentic, vulnerable, and transparent with
your before and after story of Jesus.
People will often use
a “test” conversation to see if they can trust you.
Getting
information from someone can be like getting water from a deep well. If you are
smart, you will draw it out. (Proverbs 20:5,
Easy-to-Read Version)
People can speak both
positivity and negativity into your life. Which one are you doing in the lives
of others?[i]
Inspired by the sermon “Honing Your Harvesting Skills:
The Harvest” (installment three) Sunday November 14, 2021, Pastor Kelle Alavi,
CenterPoint Virtual (CPV). In-person services are available at all three
U.S. CenterPoint locations. CenterPoint also has an online Sunday morning
service (10am) that can be viewed at centerpointchurches.online.church or
centerpointchurches.com/live.
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