6TH MARCH
John 4:9-10
“The Samaritan woman said to him, ‘How is it that you, a Jew, ask for a drink from me, a woman of Samaria?’ (For Jews have no dealings with Samaritans.) Jesus answered her, ‘If you knew the gift of God, and who it is that is saying to you, ‘Give me a drink,’ you would have asked him, and he would have given you living water.’”
Engage people in interesting spiritual conversations rather than quoting a memorised gospel presentation to them!
Jesus makes a statement that is just begging the woman to ask a further question. Three questions would have popped into the woman’s mind as Jesus spoke. “If you knew the gift of God”—immediately she must have wondered, “What does he mean by ‘the gift of God’?”
“And if you knew…who it is that is saying to you ‘Give me a drink’”—she must have wondered, “Who is he? Am I talking to a very important person?”
“If you knew…you would have asked him, and he would have given you living water.”—“I know he’s thirsty for some of this well water, but he’s suggesting that I’m thirsty for a different kind of water, and that he can give me that ‘living water’. Where do you get it?”
When you first begin to live with a sense of sentness, you may not be very good at talking this way. But the more you introduce God-conversations into your relationships with people, the more you will grow in your ability to say things that ‘beg the question’ and draw people into conversations about these things that matter so much.
MAKE IT PERSONAL:
Practice today. Try to say something in a conversation that will draw a question from the person you are talking to. Trust God to work through you.