Last week we looked at quenching our spiritual thirst for God through worshipping Him in spirit and truth. This week, let’s look at satisfying our hungry hearts with the spiritual nourishment that comes through accomplishing God’s work: JOHN 4:27-42
Have ever noticed that for us to enjoy something completely we need to share the enjoyment with someone else? We see a magnificent sunset by ourselves and think, “I wish_____ was here - they would really enjoy this.” We go to a great game or event but a friend or loved one can’t be there, and while it’s great, it’s just not complete without them. If the Miami Dolphins are ever great again, I’ll enjoy it, but not as much as I would if my dad, who got to play a season with them, was here to enjoy it with me. I think we are made that way. We are meant to be joy spreaders and even if we are enjoying something or someone immensely our joy is incomplete until it is shared with others. This is especially, even ultimately, true about our delight in God.
Genuinely delighting in God - feasting on His infinite excellencies - is the key to losing our appetite for sin’s dumpster scraps, but our enjoyment of God is incomplete when we see empty seats at His table and recall our starving friends still foraging for leftover bits of Big Mac in the dumpster of sin. For the worship feast to be complete we need to share the delight we have found with those who are still starving for love and settling for scraps.
That is exactly what the woman from the well immediately went to work doing. She left her waterpot behind - perhaps symbolically - and went to invite everyone she knew to meet the Way to the banquet. Notice how she used a question and an invitation to get people to investigate Jesus for themselves. She did not go to them arguing a case. She told them about her personal experience with Christ and invited them in an intriguing way to investigate Him for themselves. We would do well to follow the example of God’s ambassador to the Samaritans.
By the way, isn’t it wonderful how God heals and turns lives around?! God chose to save the believing Samaritans through the woman whose search for love once left her so alone that she went to the well at noon instead of in the cool morning or evening when women went together. In an instant, He took her from town tramp to town treasure! God knows just who needs what and He knows just how to work everything together for the good of those who love Him and are called according to His purposes. He also delights in putting the seemingly foolish and discarded things of this world to great, God-glorifying use. Wherever you have been - whatever you have done - whatever kind of reputation you have - turn to God, the master of turning trashed lives into treasure.
Much as Jesus used the well’s water to help the Samaritan woman discover the eternal spring of living water, He used the disciples’ food to help them and us find our spiritual food. He helped them see beyond the physical realm to the spiritual situation in their midst. He told them that it was harvest time and that He had already nourished His soul when He sowed new life into the woman, who was now working for Him reaping a harvest of new worshippers for God. It may seem ironic that we get nourished by expending energy in God’s work, but we can’t out-give God, who feeds our souls as we work to bring worshippers to Him. Finally, notice Jesus said His food came not just from knowing God’s will or from starting God’s work but from completing God’s work. So as Paul, one of God’s greatest harvest workers, once wrote “let us not grow weary of doing good, for in due season we will reap, if we do not give up.”- (Galatians 6:9) So, never give up. Give yourself to God! Give yourself to treasuring Him and to finishing His work, and He will make you a spiritually satisfied treasure to those He brings to His feast through you!
That is exactly what the woman from the well immediately went to work doing. She left her waterpot behind - perhaps symbolically - and went to invite everyone she knew to meet the Way to the banquet. Notice how she used a question and an invitation to get people to investigate Jesus for themselves. She did not go to them arguing a case. She told them about her personal experience with Christ and invited them in an intriguing way to investigate Him for themselves. We would do well to follow the example of God’s ambassador to the Samaritans.
By the way, isn’t it wonderful how God heals and turns lives around?! God chose to save the believing Samaritans through the woman whose search for love once left her so alone that she went to the well at noon instead of in the cool morning or evening when women went together. In an instant, He took her from town tramp to town treasure! God knows just who needs what and He knows just how to work everything together for the good of those who love Him and are called according to His purposes. He also delights in putting the seemingly foolish and discarded things of this world to great, God-glorifying use. Wherever you have been - whatever you have done - whatever kind of reputation you have - turn to God, the master of turning trashed lives into treasure.
Much as Jesus used the well’s water to help the Samaritan woman discover the eternal spring of living water, He used the disciples’ food to help them and us find our spiritual food. He helped them see beyond the physical realm to the spiritual situation in their midst. He told them that it was harvest time and that He had already nourished His soul when He sowed new life into the woman, who was now working for Him reaping a harvest of new worshippers for God. It may seem ironic that we get nourished by expending energy in God’s work, but we can’t out-give God, who feeds our souls as we work to bring worshippers to Him. Finally, notice Jesus said His food came not just from knowing God’s will or from starting God’s work but from completing God’s work. So as Paul, one of God’s greatest harvest workers, once wrote “let us not grow weary of doing good, for in due season we will reap, if we do not give up.”- (Galatians 6:9) So, never give up. Give yourself to God! Give yourself to treasuring Him and to finishing His work, and He will make you a spiritually satisfied treasure to those He brings to His feast through you!
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