The Living Water: Lesson Thirty-Three

"And in that day you will say:

O, LORD You were angry with me,

Your anger is turned away, and You comfort me.

Behold, God is my salvation,

I will trust and not be afraid;

'For YAH, the Lord, is my strength and song;

He also has become my salvation.

Therefore with joy you will draw water

From the wells of salvation.'"

Isaiah 12:1-3

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Let's seek the Lord today in prayer......

"Father, You are our strength and our song. You alone are our salvation. Say to our souls everyday that You are my salvation. Let me draw water from the wells of salvation.

I come to You in prayer this day to seek forgiveness of my sins. Forgive me for not submitting to You. Forgive me for putting my needs above others'. Forgive me for having anxiety about the future when I know that everything is in Your hands.

I pray for each woman reading this study that she will know that You are her salvation. I pray that she will know that You are her strength and her song. Help her to know that she is not alone. Speak to her soul today.

In Jesus' name...........amen."

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John 4:39

"And many of the Samaritans of that city believed in Him because of the word of the woman who testified, 'He told me all that I ever did.'"

Here the scriptures say why the people came to Jesus....because of the woman's testimony.

We tend to forget the power of our testimony. Like Paul, we should use it to tell others about the love of Christ.

Please read:

Acts 17: 1-4

Acts 18:1-4

Acts 20:17-37

Acts 22:1-29

Paul used his conversion to spread the Gospel message. Sometimes he spoke about how Jesus took him from Saul of Tarsus and made him into Paul the Apostle of Christ.

Gal 1: 13-17

Phil 3:4-11

Like Paul, we can use our testimonies to help bring people to Jesus. Our testimonies were given to us by Jesus. Mine is about sexual sin and the consequences of it, Paul's was about persecuting Christians.

Whatever your testimony is, use it to the glory of God.

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Life Application

"...because of the word of the woman..."

Knowing how important it is for us to spread the Gospel message, we should always be ready to give the reason for our hope and faith.

Please read:

1 Pet 3:15-17

"Be ready to give a defense to everyone who asks you..."

Whether we are asked by a friend or co-worker or someone as important as a King, we should always be ready to defend the Gospel:

Ps 119:46

And what is that hope? What is that message?

Titus 3:4-7

Rom 3:23

Rom 6:23

John 3:3

I have often felt called by God to use my testimony as a way to share the Gospel with young women who may have strayed from the Lord or who may not know the Lord. That is why I feel compelled to go on a mission trip to Slovakia next year and maybe Romania the following year to take the Gospel message to these young women.

It isn't easy to share our stories. Some of you have shared your stories with me and I know it is painful for you to go back and think about those times before the Lord saved you. Devote time to prayer and ask the Lord to remove the shame, guilt, and pain from your testimony so that you can share it with others. I also felt shame and guilt whenever I thought on my past, but I did pray and ask the Lord to remove that shame and guilt so that when I shared my testimony, I was able to focus on what the Lord had done for me and not what I had done in the flesh.

He has answered my prayer and I know He will answer yours. Reading Paul's words comforts me tremendously since his past was so shameful, yet the Lord brought Paul out of that bondage and used him in mighty ways.

He can use you too.

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Until next time.......

"God has given to each one of us a measure of faith (Rom. 12:3), and He expects us to use our faith to overcome our fear. Why is this important? Because fear is always a component of adversity. A degree of fear is part of what makes a situation an adversity instead of just another experience. Fear is part of the negative dimension of an adversity.....Faith tells us the opposite story. Faith says that God is in control and when He is in control, all things work together for our good (Rom. 8:28). Faith says that we will recover and that our final state will be better than anything we have experienced or been thus far. Faith says that whatever Satan steals from us, he must restore, and in virutally all cases, he must restore more than what he stole."

-Charles Stanley (Advancing Through Adversity, 1996, p. 68)

Blessings,

Ruth