HAVE YOU HEARD HIM
Then they said to the woman, “Now we believe, not just because of what you told us, but because we have heard him ourselves. Now we know that he is indeed the Savior of the world.” (John 4:42 NLT)
Jesus suffered so that we do not have to! This is a random thought for sure, but I need to begin with it! I am confident that God can make it all make sense. I just don’t know exactly yet!
The truth is, there are a lot of thoughts that Jesus presented that start out looking and sounding random. Jesus’ random stop at a well where some would say he should not have been, resulted in the people saying that they believed because they heard Him. So, what started out as random proved wonderful.
Hearing requires listening. Listening requires seeing. Seeing requires sharing or showing. So, the woman saw Jesus before she got to the well. She knew what to expect, but then she heard Him speaking. It was a surprise, because she already knew she was nothing to Him. She even tried to fend Him off reminding Him that He should know better.
I am sure this put a twinkle in Jesus’ eye. She was listening and she was about to see things she never imagined. She was already beginning to feel something going on. In her attempts to offend Him with what His people said, she opened the door wide open to the greatest truth of all. I have read this a lot of times, it still thrills me when Jesus says, “I am the Messiah!”
Jesus shared the truth with her. He shared the truth with her about herself, and she did not run off. As soon as she heard Him say who He was, left her water jug behind and took off sharing and showing the truth to all who would receive.
Her countenance must have attracted people. How could she be happy? After all, she had not experienced joy for a long time.
If she could have joy and experience salvation, they certainly could too. She got their attention and they went to see for themselves. And they told her that they heard Him themselves.
It is important for people to hear God. But someone has to tell them about Him. In order to tell about Him, we need to have something to tell. If we have heard Him and seen Him, we all have something to tell.
There are a lot of people suffering because they do not know the truth. They do not have to suffer. They can know Jesus and He is the Comforter. He has a way of taking suffering away. He told Saul the things that he must suffer for the gospel and Paul, who was Saul, told the people they would be ok because Jesus was with them and He took it all. If God has done things in your life, you have all you need to help someone hear so they can look and see and understand and be transformed by the good news. The joy of the Lord gives great strength. REJOICE!