Living WaterSýnishorn

Hearing and believing

“It is no longer because of what you said that we believe, for we have heard for ourselves, and we know that this is indeed the Savior of the world.” (John 4:42)

Many Samaritans, inspired by the wonderful words of the woman, came to Jesus. They asked Him to stay with them, and He did. Many people came to faith. Initially, they had believed because of what this woman told them. But now they believed in Jesus because they had heard for themselves.

This is an important principle, I think. Nobody should build his or her faith on the testimonies of other people. Only God’s own Word has ultimate authority. The difficulty for us, of course, is that we can’t see Jesus physically and can’t hear his words with our very own ears. We have to rely on the eyewitness accounts in the Bible. But Jesus has sent his Holy Spirit to convince us of the truth. He speaks Jesus’ words into our heart and leads us into all truth (John 16:13). He makes us sure that we are God’s children (Romans 8:16), even though we can’t see Jesus, nor His Kingdom.

Do you accept Jesus’ testimony as trustworthy and authoritative? Are his words the ultimate guideline for your faith and do you build your life on them?

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