“From that city many of the Samaritans believed in Him because of the word of the woman who testified, “He told me all the things that I have done.” So when the Samaritans came to Jesus, they were asking Him to stay with them; and He stayed there two days.”

-The Gospel of John 4:39-40

Notes:

Why is it that it is so easy for us to remember the bad in people and not the good?  You teachers know what I am talking about.  You can have 100 good, quite, and attentive students, who never cause any trouble, but have one troublemaker, and 3 years later be able to remember that person’s name, while forgetting all the others.

When we read in the Gospel of John about Jesus’ conversation with the Samaritan woman at the well, the primary thing that sticks with us is how she was living with a guy who was not her husband, and how she had had 5 previous husbands.  However, what we need to realize about this woman is, despite her sinful past, she had an encounter with the Christ, and as a result, won almost an entire city for the Lord!  The above scripture says that as a result of the Samaritans hearing this woman’s testimony, they all came to Jesus.  A great lesson from this story shows us what the genuine and unfeigned power of a testimony can do once it is shared: It can lead many people to glory.  

Willing to Take the Challenge?

Despite our sinful pasts, we have been born again into the kingdom of God, and are now saints in  His family, where EACH of us have a unique testimony of our own of how God changed our lives.  In the book of revelations, it says that those who overcame the wicked one, overcame him by the blood of the Lamb and the word of their testimony. Because we have been translated from the kingdom of darkness to the kingdom of God’s Son, we should be as Peter and John who said “for we cannot stop speaking about what we have seen and heard.”  Hang on to your testimony, and don’t be afraid or timid of sharing the power of God in your life. After all, you do know which “Samaritians” in your life will come to Christ as a result of it.