A first-hand faith

If you are a person of faith, is it something you’ve inherited or has someone taken the trouble to introduce you to it? Either way, is your present faith one of personal conviction?

Jesus engaged a Samaritan woman in conversation as she came to draw water from an old well. He soon steered their talk to things spiritual, sensing that this particular woman had a deep thirst in her soul which natural water wouldn’t quench. He was concerned to get to the heart-need of this woman. He drew out of her the actual status of her current ‘marriage’ and then demonstrated that he knew all about her previous complex relationships. This took her aback. Thinking that only someone who has had a revelation from God could have known such intimate things about her life she said, ‘I can see that you are a prophet’. She then asked religious questions about the long-standing division between the Jews and Samaritans. Was she wishing to divert the conversation from her own irregular domestic situation or was she genuinely now thirsting to satisfy her faith questions? (The Jews and Samaritans were at odds with each other though they shared some of the same Scriptures and both groups were looking for a coming Messiah.)

The woman went back to her town and said to the people, ‘Come, see a man who told me everything I ever did. Could this be the Messiah?’ The townspeople did come and many of them put their trust in Jesus because of the woman's words. They urged him to stay with them, which he did for two days.

What grabs my attention is what those new believers said to the woman who had brought them to meet Jesus: They said to her, ‘We no longer believe just because of what you said; now we have heard for ourselves, and we know that this man really is the Saviour of the world.’

God’s intention is to use each individual Christian to introduce Jesus the Messiah to others. Ultimately, however, none of us should be tied to the apron strings of the person who first told us about Jesus. We each need to be able to say, ‘No longer do I believe just because of what you said, I know it for myself.’ A first-hand faith and not a second-hand one is something worth boldly asking Jesus for.