Encountering Jesus

Gospel According to John

4.39-42

Many Samaritans from that city believed in him because of the woman's testimony,"He told me everything I have ever done."So when the Samaritans came to him , they asked him to stay with them;and he stayed there two days.And many more believed because of his word.They said to the woman, "It is no longer because of what you said that we believe, for we have heard for ourselves , and we know that this is truly the Saviour of the world."

There are two ways by which we can believe in something, one is that we accept what others say and second is that we ourselves have to directly encounter something to believe.What is this believing actually?Believing is an act of the mind or will that something is there or that something exists out here/ out there.So it is primarily giving assent to something that is not usual and the mind requires tremendous effort and resources for such a state.Because we agree to go by that even when when it is contradictory to that , that exists here or there.The mind requires adjustment and a different mode of operation for this activity of believing.So here we find the Samaritans believing in Jesus not because of what somebody told them but because they themselves have encountered Jesus in their midst.Now we are not fortunate for such a state, even some of the Israelites were not that fortunate to believe in Jesus and accept Him as the Saviour.We are less fortunate because we require our inner mind making assent to Jesus, which is not at all easy. We then start making to tune our mind in some unknown ways that may not be comfortable at all.So we ask God in simple ways to grant us the gift to believe in Jesus and accept Him as our friend, brother and God

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