8TH MARCH
John 4:11-14
“The woman said to him, ‘Sir, you have nothing to draw water with, and the well is deep. Where do you get that living water? Are you greater than our father Jacob? He gave us the well and drank from it himself, as did his sons and his livestock.’ Jesus said to her, ‘Everyone who drinks of this water will be thirsty again, but whoever drinks of the water that I will give him will never be thirsty again. The water that I will give him will become in him a spring of water welling up to eternal life.’”
A true conversation is directed by both people!
Sometimes our witnessing to people about Jesus is more like a mini-sermon. We launch into our four points of the gospel, we talk through our memorised verses and we desperately hope the other person doesn’t ask a question, because we won’t have memorised what to say about their issue!
What Jesus models for us is so different from that approach. His conversation with the woman at the well is more like a dance than a performance. In a performance, one person does everything while the other watches. But in a dance, both partners determine the outcome.
When you read this conversation between Jesus and the woman at the well carefully, you realise that the woman determined the direction of the conversation just as much as Jesus. Jesus is not talking at the woman. Rather, they are interacting! Jesus is the one with the answers, but he is not pushing them on the woman.
Always hold in your mind the truths of the gospel that people must understand, but draw people into a conversation about these things, don’t give them a mini-sermon.
MAKE IT PERSONAL:
Try to spend a today focusing on listening rather than talking. What difference do you think this will make?