Last week, I wrote about Jabez, and how he got his name from the pain his mother experienced at his birth. Later in life, Jabez prayed that God would spare him from pain, and God honored that prayer.
I want to expand on that thought by using one of my favorite stories in the Bible. You find it in the John 4 telling of Jesus and the Samaritan woman. I like this story, because there are a lot of life lessons we can pull from it. It essentially illustrates that Jesus loves everybody.
In this story, we have a woman with a past. Jesus calls her out that her past includes five blown marriages, and she was shacking up with her boyfriend when Jesus came to town. She could have easily been the test case of Dr. Laura's "Ten Stupid Things Women Do to Mess Up Their Lives."
But, then came Jesus. And, that's an important fact in this passage. This woman was miserable. Her life was a wreck. She was an outcast in her community. She was showing up in the middle of the day to draw her water, instead of in the morning, because she wanted to avoid all the ridicule.
This woman had a bad past, and she was still living in her past when she met Jesus. In the simple interaction we read in the Bible, we discover the life transforming power that Christ has on people's lives. This woman was instantly changed.
Her discouraged and depressed life was suddenly filled with hope. Jesus changed her future, and she was never the same.
Perhaps you know someone who has experienced such a life change. Maybe that happened to you. Or, you could be searching for that kind of change.
The Bible says that is you repent of your sins and confess that Jesus is Lord of your life, you will be given a new hope and a new future that includes an eternity spent with Him. Your past doesn't have to be a stumbling block for the rest of your life. Just like the woman at the well, your future can be made new with Jesus.
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