The weeks and months leading up to it are filled with anxious excitement.

You simultaneously can’t wait for it to be here and yet want more time to get prepared.

The day your first child is born is unlike anything you have ever experienced before. It doesn’t matter how many parenting books you have read or how many people have described their experience to you, holding your baby in your arms for the first time changes your life forever in a way far greater than you could ever hope for.

There are some things in life that cannot be adequately described with words, they must be experienced firsthand to fully understand them.

I believe personally knowing Christ is also one of those occasions.

I was 24 when my faith in Christ became my own. I always considered myself to be a Christian, but my daily life often didn’t reflect it. I had a borrowed faith from Sunday school teachers, pastors and family that brought me to Christ.

I believed what they believed, but when I sought Christ out for myself in His Word, I found a Savior more real and more loving than anything else I knew and He actually wanted a personal relationship with me!

I wish I could describe the joy and the peace of having a personal relationship with Jesus.

I want there to be words that could adequately describe it to you. Even more so, I want you to experience it for yourself!

In John 4, Jesus meets a woman at a well who leads her city not only to believe but to believe for themselves. She is a Samaritan with a checkered past (and present) and comes to the well alone in the scorching heat of the midday sun to avoid the ridicule of others.

In the process of the conversation that ensues, Jesus reveals to her that He is the Messiah, the Savior of the world. John writes that she went back into the city and that many believed in Jesus because of her testimony and accepted her invitation to come out to meet Him at the well.

After spending two days with Him, they proclaimed to the woman, “It is no longer because of what you said that we believe, for we have heard for ourselves and know that this One is indeed the Savior of the world.”

They had originally believed because of the Samaritan woman’s testimony but through seeking out Jesus for themselves, their faith had changed. It grew with a richness and an assurance that they had not previously experienced. Their faith was now personal and solidified by their own interactions with Christ.

Take time this week to reflect and pray. Is your faith borrowed from the testimony of strong Christians in your life or have you sought Christ yourself? Experience a personal relationship with Jesus for yourself. There are some things in life that cannot be adequately described with words, you must experience them firsthand to fully understand them.