Jesus has been adjudged the best teacher to have walked the planet earth. His approach to teaching was always dynamic and adapted to the situation, nothing stereotypical. When He met two brothers in their family business of fishing, He spoke in familiar language: “Follow me, and I will make you fishers of men.” Matthew 4:19. To Nicodemus, a supposed leader and teacher in Israel, He spoke on a slightly higher, intellectual plane: “Ye must be born again.” John 3:7. To the Samaritan woman in focus, Jesus began at the very thing she was looking for. He offered the living water that can quench all her thirst. Jesus aroused her dead spiritual state by reading her past like a mail. That was the tonic. This woman would soon take the story of her contact with Jesus to the men of her city, inviting them to “come, see a Man, which told me all things that ever I did: Is not this the Christ?” John 4:29. Her story brought many to salvation and changed her city for God.

The main thrust of our meditation today is that you also have a story that can be put to good use. The mad man who Jesus healed told his story in ten cities and brought many to salvation. Your story, when told, may be the tonic that someone needs to forge ahead in life. Occasionally, during preaching, I have recalled how my wife and I went through a tough time coping with a miscarriage. I recalled this story somewhere without knowing that a woman just suffered a miscarriage a couple of days earlier. Hearing my story brought healing to her, and she returned to work the following day. God has since restored her. God used the Samaritan’s story to change her city; and used ours to restore a woman. He can use your story too!