John 4:27-42
We need food, water, shelter and clothing. Basic needs to sustain human life. So we get up in the morning and start working to provide for those needs. Perhaps you are also providing for other's needs to be met. Throw in the things you want besides your needs and it gets more complicated, requires more work. Sometimes we get to a point where our lives are consumed by work.
Jesus' disciples are concerned about Jesus need for food and urge Him to, "...eat something." in John 4:31. The Samaritan woman wonders how Jesus will drink from the well, "...you have nothing to draw with and the well is deep." Physical needs that must be attended to. In both situations, though, Jesus is not concerned with the physical. In the case of the Samaritan woman He talks about living water that comes from a "spring of water welling up to eternal life." Jesus answers His disciples concern over food with, "I have food to eat that you know nothing about....My food is to do the will of Him who sent Me and to finish His work."
Yes, meeting physical needs is important. God provided everything man needed in the Garden of Eden. It was sin that turned meeting those needs into a burden. "To Adam he said, "Because you listened to your wife and ate from the tree about which I commanded you, 'You must not eat of it', "Cursed is the ground because of you; through painful toil you will eat of it all the days of your life. It will produce thorns and thistles for you, and you will eat the plants of the field. By the sweat of your brow you will eat your food until you return to the ground,..." Genesis 3:17-19. From that point onward we would toil and sweat for sustenance.
Meeting spiritual needs was the reason Jesus came. We're focused on the physical. He knows that, and uses those needs to reveal our deeper need. our need for Him, and the abundant life He alone provides. We worry about the physical, but He tells us,"...do not worry about your life, what you will eat or drink; or your body, what you will wear. Is not life more important than food, and the body more important than clothes?" (Matthew 6:25)
Jesus revealed Himself as Messiah to the Samaritan woman. Her response was to leave her water jar and tell the people in town to come and see. The people came, listened to Jesus and many believed.
Yes, there was still water to draw each day for the needs of her household. But can you imagine for a moment, how the woman viewed the well from that day forward? Perhaps the task became less of a burden, and the well a place of praise and thanksgiving for the day she met the Living Water there!
First hand experience has showed me meeting someone's physical need can open the door for God to meet their spiritual needs. It reminds me also to pray for the group going to Haiti this week. They will be serving the people there, being the hands and feet of Jesus, meeting physical as well as spiritual needs. God is providing hope and love to others by the willing hearts of His servants. What an amazing picture of the Christian faith! But there are also so many people that we know in our own backyard that are hurting too. God is calling me to open my eyes and look at the fields that are ripe for harvest. Jesus touched the Samaritan woman who in turn shared with her neighbors, who then also believed. What an encouragement and motivation that is to us to share God's love. We have no idea how our one act of service or testimony will increase God's kingdom. And as we touch someone we know with God's love, it is food for our souls too. As Jesus said, "My food is to do the will of him who sent me." It is our nourishment and joy to lead someone to Christ. There are so many hurting people in this world that need Jesus. Lord, give me your eyes and ears to hear the needs of those around me. I was going through a drawer in my kitchen tonight and found a piece of scrap paper with a quote I had written down some time ago. It was like a little gift from God that I found in my junk drawer. "What better way to celebrate Jesus than to wrap our hope around the lives of those with needs greater than our own."
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