People love sharing good news. When that good news is about Jesus, sharing it is called witnessing. A witness shares with others what they have seen, heard and experienced. Faith in Christ is a life changing event. It lifts us from the mire of sin and pays a debt we could never have paid, and in the process we are reconciled to God our Father. There are many ways of describing our emotional response to these facts. Our descriptions include words like peace, love, lifted burdens, freedom and hope. When something this wonderful happens, it is natural that we want to share it; it is also expected. Jesus tells us to be His witnesses and to testify to what He has done. The woman at the well, in her excitement, left her water jar and went into the town and begin sharing with everyone about what she had seen, heard and experienced.

She was the first person in her town to meet Jesus, so her witness had the potential to evangelize every person she spoke to. That potential was increase by the reality that the Samaritans believed in the God of Israel and were expecting the Messiah to appear. She told them about Jesus and how He knew everything about her. The people people in the town also knew everything about her history, and would not have naturally looked to her for spiritual guidance. Perhaps for this reason, she did not tell them that Jesus was the Messiah, rather she asked them a question. Could Jesus be the Messiah? It was obvious from her witness, her courage and her emotions that she believed He was. She did not try to force her belief upon them, however her excitement, as she told them about Jesus, was enough to make them consider her question. They were not convince, but they were intrigued enough to consider the possibility, and they went to discover for themselves. Effective witnessing is not demanding, it is revealing. The revelation or Jesus leads to belief.