Come and See
“Come and see what our God has done, what awesome miracles he performs for people!” -Psalm 66:5, NLT
Think back to a time that God saved you.
Did He pull you out of a depressive episode, or heal you of a physical disease? Perhaps He mended your heart after it was broken. Maybe He opened doors for you to escape a bad situation. Or, possibly, He protected you from your own destructive choices.
It could be a miracle, a saving grace moment, an answered prayer, a moment of redemption. Those times that you acknowledge, “God really came through!”
I can think of many in my own life.
The immediate one that comes to mind, of course, would be how God healed my heart and redeemed my life after the devastation of divorce. And there are other, just as significant, times that God pulled me out of a pit or diverted me from making life-altering mistakes.
These moments of deliverance solidify our faith and give us joyful hearts again. We can finally take a breath of fresh air and look forward to our life ahead, knowing that God can, and did, save us.
I don’t know about you, but these moments make me want to go shout God’s goodness from the rooftops! I want to tell everyone I know (and don’t know) how God saved me from situations that once felt unsalvageable.
I want to say to others, “Come and see what God did in my life! If He saved me, He can save you too.”
Part of gratitude—part of giving God praise for His goodness—is to share these stories of His redeeming work in our lives.
Yes, we can be grateful and give God praise in our private prayers, but it’s also important that we do so publicly. And it’s not because God needs us to brag about Him, it’s because our stories of His saving grace introduces others to that same saving grace in their own lives.
There’s a story in John 4 that paints a picture of this for us.
The chapter starts with Jesus traveling from Judea to Galilee. On His way, He stops in a Samaritan village:
“Jacob’s well was there; and Jesus, tired from the long walk, sat wearily beside the well at noontime. Soon a Samaritan woman came to draw water, and Jesus said to her, ‘Please give me a drink.’
The woman was surprised, for Jews refuse to have anything to do with Samaritans. She said to Jesus, ‘You are a Jew, and I am a Samaritan woman. Why are you asking me for a drink?’ Jesus replied, ‘If you only knew the gift God has for you and who you are speaking to, you would ask me, and I would give you living water.’
‘Please, sir,’ the woman said, ‘give me this water! Then I’ll never be thirsty again, and I won’t have to come here to get water.’
‘Go and get your husband,’ Jesus told her.
‘I don’t have a husband,’ the woman replied.
Jesus said, ‘You’re right! You don’t have a husband—for you have had five husbands, and you aren’t even married to the man you’re living with now. You certainly spoke the truth!’”
-John 4:5-7, 9-10, 15-18 (NLT)
Jesus and this woman go on to discuss spiritual matters like salvation and worship. It’s clear she’s having a bit of a hard time understanding all that Jesus is explaining (as many people in Scripture did, and even do so today), and after a little while she resorts to saying the following:
“‘I know the Messiah is coming—the one who is called Christ. When he comes, he will explain everything to us.’
Then Jesus told her, ‘I am the Messiah!’
The woman left her water jar beside the well and ran back to the village, telling everyone, ‘Come and see a man who told me everything I ever did! Could he possibly be the Messiah?’ So the people came streaming from the village to see him.
Many Samaritans from the village believed in Jesus because the woman had said, ‘He told me everything I ever did!’
When they came out to see him, they begged him to stay in their village. So he stayed for two days, long enough for many more to hear his message and believe. Then they said to the woman, ‘Now we believe, not just because of what you told us, but because we have heard him ourselves. Now we know that he is indeed the Savior of the world.’”
-John 4:25-26, 28-30, 39-42 (NLT)
This woman was living an empty life, moving (or being moved) from husband to husband. She was also likely an outcast in the village because of her marital history. But Jesus brings her salvation and redemption.
He offers her the “living water”—eternal life in relationship with Him—that will satisfy her soul forever. She does not have to place her joy or her peace in a husband anymore, she can rest in the love and saving grace of God. Her social status, or marital status, is no determiner of her value or her acceptance into God’s Kingdom.
Jesus (a Jewish man) treats her (a Samaritan, outcast woman) in such a way that her heart and her life is radically changed; and she can’t keep quiet about it!
It’s interesting that, when this woman runs back to the village, she doesn’t tell everyone the deep, spiritual things that Jesus told her, regarding salvation and worship. She simply shares with them her personal experience with Jesus: “He told me everything I ever did!”
Why is this the information she chose to share? Because stories of personal experience will always be more compelling than facts or intellectual discussion.
If she had said, “There’s a man at the well who just explained to me all the things of God!”, they would have dismissed the words coming from such a woman. They also likely would have been thinking, “Oh great, she’s met another man…”
Instead, she comes back with a story of her transformation. When the village people see this they have no choice but to go and see the man for themselves. And, as they spend time listening to Jesus, their own hearts are transformed. They accept the salvation and redemption offered to them as well; all because the Samaritan woman was willing to share her story.
Had this woman not shared her story, the many others from the village may have never gotten to experience Jesus themselves. Likewise, this is why we share our stories of God’s saving and redeeming work in our lives.
When we share our stories, it is an invitation for others to “come and see” what God has done for us. And that becomes the hope they need for what God can do in their lives as well.
Here’s where the challenge lies: sharing the story of how God saved us means sharing what God saved us from. This means admitting our weaknesses, our hurts, and the things that feel shameful.
If I tell you that God saved me from spiraling deep into depression, I’m admitting to you my susceptibility to depression and poor mental health.
Some people get on a stage and share their testimony of God bringing them out of addiction, which requires a vulnerability to admit their former addiction.
These are certainly not easy things to share; nonetheless, these types of stories can have a profound impact and influence on those who hear them.
Sharing your story may mean revealing information about your health, your trauma, your fears, or your struggles. And that’s hard to do. But, on the other side of your story, someone could come to find Jesus and experience their own redemption story.
Your story is important, and there are people who need to hear it. When we share our story, God uses it as a conduit to spread comfort, encouragement, hope, inspiration, wisdom, and truth in the world.
But if the enemy can have you believing that your story is not special or important, then he can keep you silent. And silencing your story suppresses the incredible power of it.
Your story is not meant to be silenced or hidden away, it is meant to be shared.
So what’s the story that comes to mind for you? What’s the situation where you experienced God’s deliverance and saving grace? And are you ready to share that story? Because there’s a world out there that needs to hear it.
Invite others in to come and see what God has been able to do in your life, so they can see what He can do in theirs.
If you’re interested, here’s a great worship song to accompany this blog:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PtKS7XXY1aw (Jeremy Rosado “Come and See”)
-Stephanie Lauren Jordan
