(Photo by Selma Komisky)

From Bondage to Living with Purpose

By Amber Johnson

Did you know the Creator of the universe is a personal God who knows you intimately?

Think about that for a minute.

The Creator of the sun, moon, stars, the Grand Canyon, Mount Fuji, the oceans, black holes, and the entire universe knows you intimately!

Not only that, our magnificent God desires a personal relationship with you and has a specifically designed purpose for your life.

Crazy, right!?

While Jesus, the Son of God, spent His time on earth, there are many stories of His personal relationships with various people. Jesus’ exchange with the Samaritan woman in the Book of John, Chapter 4, is a beautiful example of a life changed by a personal relationship with the Savior.   

Jesus’ interaction with this woman was countercultural. The woman at the well was a Samaritan, and He was a Jew. Samaritans and Jews avoided one another, but Jesus made a point to travel through Samaria to specifically talk with her. He not only conversed with her, but he got to know her. He showed interest in who she was even though He knew exactly who she was and what she had done. He wanted her to know that he cared for her and that he specifically came to establish a relationship with her.

Within their conversation, Jesus acknowledged the exact reason why she was alone and getting water from the well at the hottest time of day- her sin. She had had five husbands and was now living with a man who wasn’t her husband.

It was an uncomfortable but needed conversation.

When we encounter Jesus, He exposes our sins. He sees all of us and loves us. He cares so much that he goes straight to the heart of our issues- our sinful nature.

But Jesus not only exposes our sin, He forgives us and wants us to walk with Him out of it into a new life.

When Jesus shared with the woman, “I am the Messiah!”, her life was changed because she believed. That didn’t mean all of her problems were taken away. Rather, she was empowered from the inside out to live differently because she had a personal relationship with the Savior. She recognized this immediately and ran to town to tell everyone about Jesus!

Jesus came to set her free. And Jesus sets you free from the bondage of sin!

When we have a personal relationship with Jesus, we are free to live the life that we were designed for. That life is a distinct calling from the Creator of the Universe who knows us intimately and designed each of us for a specific purpose. Living any other life beyond the life we were created for is living in bondage.

In my own faith journey, it took drastic circumstances, a car accident, for me to truly start seeking a personal relationship with Jesus.

That car accident was the start of exposing the truth of how I was living. I was living in a cycle of people pleasing and self-numbing pain. Many of my decisions in life were based on what others wanted me to do, and I often attracted toxic relationships. I was so confused on who I was or what I wanted because my brain was so used to being hyper-focused on everyone else. I couldn’t even see the lie I was living because I was immersed in it.

The Lord pursued me and took me away from everything and everyone I knew after that car accident. He wanted me to see the truth so that I could be set free and live the life I was called to live. As I began going to church, studying His Word, and actively pursuing a relationship with Jesus, He was healing me.

Like the Samaritan woman, the Lord didn’t immediately take all of my problems away, but the Lord continues to equip me to live differently by changing me from the inside out. Jesus changed my life! 

You were created with a purpose by our personal and relational God of the universe. Jesus loves you. He died to take your sins away, and He wants you to be set free. Let us seek the Lord to live out the lives we were designed for.

The journey is never easy, but it’s worth it, so let’s believe and share the Good News like the Samaritan woman!