Hello, my Bermuda family. We are on the countdown to the new year, and as the year ends, it offers an opportunity for reflection. I can only speak from my experience, but this year has had its challenges: emotional, spiritual, mental, physical, and financial. In short, “life has been life’n”.

As I reflect on this year, the lesson that God has been affirming in me is that the ability to get through each challenging moment is rooted in knowing Jesus Christ. It is hard to convey how deep the word “knowing” has been to me this year.

Experiencing the belief in Jesus Christ moving from head knowledge to heart knowledge and the reality of what His sacrifice on the Cross means for my life continued to shift my experience from feelings and reciting scripture to an unshakeable knowing that is rooted and unshiftable.

My faith has been steadfast and consistent through the highs and lows that this year brought. As we approach the dates that many celebrate as Jesus’s birth, the beginning of his journey here on Earth that led to the fulfilment of his mission to provide salvation to all, I wanted to encourage my island home one last time this year, with a devotional thought on knowing Jesus.

One of the best examples of this is found in the Book of John, chapter 4, recounting the women at the well, quoting from the English Standard Version.

In verse 3, Jesus sits at Jacob’s Well on his journey through Samaria. His disciples departed to get supplies for their journey, but he was alone and wearied.

Some further context is that the Jews had a longstanding prejudice against the Samaritans, and it was customary for them not to engage with one another. Jesus asks the Samaritan woman to draw water from the well for him to drink.

Being taken aback by the request from a Jewish man, dialogue had been initiated between Jesus and the women. Verse 10 reads, “Jesus answered her, ‘If you knew the gift of God, and who it is that is saying to you, ‘Give me a drink,’ you would have asked him, and he would have given you living water.’”

In this verse, Jesus starts to reveal to the woman who He is divinely, and plants the seed of how knowing Him gives access to “living water”, because He is the source. The conversation continues with a back-and-forth between her understanding of literal water and what Jesus meant by living water.

Verses 13 to 15 read: “Jesus said to her, ‘Everyone who drinks of this water will be thirsty again, but whoever drinks of the water that I will give him will never be thirsty again. The water that I will give him will become in him a spring of water welling up to eternal life.’ The woman said to him, ‘Sir, give me this water, so that I will not be thirsty or have to come here to draw water.’”

As Jesus continues to plant the seeds of him being the source of salvation, the conversation takes an interesting turn when He asks the woman to get her husband.

Verses 16 to 19 read: “Jesus said to her, ‘Go, call your husband, and come here.’ The woman answered him, ‘I have no husband.’ Jesus said to her, ‘You are right in saying, ‘I have no husband’; for you have had five husbands, and the one you now have is not your husband. What you have said is true.’ The woman said to him, ‘Sir, I perceive that you are a prophet.’”

At this moment, Jesus did not reveal this information to shame her or demand a confession and repentance of her lifestyle. He showed the information for the woman to realise that He knew intimate details about her even though this was their first encounter.

Hearing the revelation of her most private sins led her to perceive Jesus as a prophet, not yet the Messiah. They continue dialogue for a couple more verses. Verses 25 and 26 read, “The woman said to him, ‘I know that Messiah is coming (he who is called Christ). When he comes, he will tell us all things.’ Jesus said to her, ‘I who speak to you am he.’”

At this moment, on the revelation to the woman of who Jesus is, the disciples return, shocked that Jesus is even engaging with the woman at all. Upon their return, the woman drops her water vessel, returns to the city, and tells whomever she encounters.

Jesus meets us on an individual basis. He did not say to the woman “go and sin no more”. He did not demand an immediate confession and repentance. His only goal for their conversation was to reveal His identity as her Saviour and for her to receive it, believe it, and know it deeply and unshakeably herself.

She left that conversation with the heart knowledge that Jesus was who He said he was and will accomplish the promises of His word. As a result, many from that city came to meet Jesus to have an individual encounter with him themselves.

Verses 39 to 42 read, “Many Samaritans from that town believed in him because of the woman’s testimony, ‘He told me all that I ever did.’ 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 indeed the Saviour of the world.’”

The recount of this event never reveals whether the woman changed her lifestyle. Jesus knows how the Holy Spirit works in the heart, like the wind, invisible to humans but powerful and effective.

Once a heart experiences the conviction of the knowledge of Christ, it has the opportunity, if the conviction is pursued, to experience the authentic and organic transformation of heart and mind, which organically leads to the transformation of lifestyle and habits.

This information is such an encouragement to me because it removes the pressure for me to have performative behaviour modification and permits me to live life, trusting that the Holy Spirit is convicting me, correcting me, loving me, and transforming me. Even amid life’s most significant challenges I see the growth I have made and look forward to continued growth in Christ.

I leave you with this prayer. I pray that if you are seeking, you open your heart to the revelations from Heaven and that you experience a knowing of who Christ is, so deeply that you can end this year experiencing a peace beyond understanding, and feel empowered to embrace the new year with knowing that you are seen, loved, pursued, provided for and valued beyond measure.

With love and blessings,

– Chelsea