Day 6: The Power in Your Voice

Bible reading: John 4: 7-42

The story of the Samaritan woman is quite a well known story to us, but I think in her own day and time, the life of the Samaritan woman was a well known failure.

She was probably the example parents would warn their children about becoming like while they were being scolded. Nobody knew the exact number of men she had been with or the circumstances that led to the break of each marriage. You know how once you’ve crossed the three marriages line, you’re susceptible to different numbers and stories surrounding your marital life. One person says you’ve had nine men; another says seven; another insists that she has personally counted twelve, while a WhatsApp broadcast message trending about you claims that you’re so into men that you have slept with every man in the city…

We have to realize that when this woman encountered Jesus, the most likely thing for her to do was not to run straight to the city and began to lift her new found evangelistic voice.

There was all the shame to overcome. Maybe guilt too. There was the fact that she hadn’t even lifted up her eyes in public for quite a while, not to talk of lifting her voice to invite people.

But something about encountering Jesus gave her a spark and a spring, and made her raise her voice where she previously didn’t have a voice!

I think this is not merely a story of the Samaritan woman, it’s a story of everyone of us! Doesn’t life have a way of showing us one more reason why we should be bowed down in guilt or shame; doesn’t life have a way of reminding us of our past whenever we’re trying to reach for audacious possibilities in our future. I think we all deal with the feeling of restrain

But can we be reminded and encouraged today that Jesus wants you to rediscover your voice!

Jesus wants you to be a strong and influential voice for Him! This is not about how many mistakes or bad things you’ve ever done, it’s about the one good thing that she did.

It’s amazing that the Bible says the entire city followed the woman to see and listen to Jesus! Who would have believed that just an encounter with Jesus could make the timid and bowed down woman such a powerful city influencer!

Her new found voice was not based on some new abundant revelation that she found. Her message was simple: ‘Come and see a man…!’

I really believe we so often fall into the trap of thinking our voice is to be a pointer to ourselves or our brilliance and so we keep feeling inadequate. But when we realize that our voice is given to us to be a pointer to Jesus, then it saves us the pressure of trying to be super brilliant and all that.

‘Come and see Jesus!’

How can you find that voice today? Who can you be sharing the gospel with? Who can you be handing an invitation to? Who can you be putting a voice out towards?

And the second limitation we face is usually all the bad things we believe people know about us. But I think we find with the woman that God has a way of using our past failures to make our witness even stronger! It took a woman who had so failed with men to herald the invitation ‘come and see a man…!’ Nobody else could do it like her!

You may think you have a terrible past that everyone knows- but that in itself is the big reason why your witness becomes authentic, because you are proof that God can change and heal a terrible past like yours!

I pray you will believe today for God to help you rediscover the voice of influence he intends for you! I pray you will believe to be a strong voice and not a guilt-soaked, past-drawn lost voice!

May you rediscover your influence for the glory of our God! May you rediscover your voice for the sake of Christ! May your voice be loud in a dark day and age, giving hope and pointing people to Jesus!

Amen

PS. I’m really looking forward to our Surge Prayer Hangout tomorrow evening as we round off this Surge series! We had such an amazing time last week! If you have any praise reports of what God is doing in your life or any prayer needs you’d love us to stand in faith with you for, please share with us at sycamore.church/pr