Day 23 - A Woman from Samaria: a meeting at a well
Let’s be quick to recognise the fullness of the solutions Jesus brings to our circumstances.
Read: John 4:4-26
THEME: The Gospel record gives us so many examples of how people engaged with Jesus that it would be hard to find a human challenge that did not in some way meet Him face-to face.
The well at which Jesus met the Samaritan woman was not just any well. She had come to draw water from Jacob’s well. She knew who had dug it, who had drunk from it, and how deep it was. There was nothing wrong with Jacob’s well; it provided a good temporary solution to physical thirst and Jesus was happy for her to help Him drink from it, even though His request shocked her. But when Jesus offered her living water, which He said would continually slake her thirst, she was curious. This could save her leaving her house and let her hide permanently from her neighbours.
There was a problem, though; the well was deep and, although she sensed that Jesus might be greater than Jacob, He had no rope and bucket. She was of course right about Jesus being greater than Jacob and His well is even deeper than Jacob’s well was, but no bucket is needed. The spring supplying it is strong enough to deliver at the surface as well as to satisfy the depths. It is the spring of resurrection life that was to see Jesus triumph on the cross.
The woman was so overwhelmed with what she had received that she left her water-pot at the well. She would need it again to draw physical water, but she had discovered a deeper well that had enabled her to confront her past, face her future and embrace her neighbours.
Let’s be quick to recognise the fullness of the solutions Jesus brings to our circumstances.
Day 18 - Lot and the rescue
May we today find ways of extending God’s grace to others.
Read: Genesis 14
THEME: There are some incidents in Abraham’s life that are hard to explain unless we see how God’s grace towards us can make us gracious towards others.
Although, when choosing land, Lot believed he was selecting the best, it turned out to be the worst, with two very sinful cities, Sodom and Gomorrah, right in the midst of it. It was also a region renowned for strife, with rival kingdoms fighting over the territory.
On one occasion Abram had had to mount a rescue, riding hard with his friends and household to release Lot, and his fellow inhabitants of Sodom, who had been taken into captivity. It was on his return from this battle that Abram was blessed by Melchizedek, God’s High Priest, named as King of Righteousness and King of Peace.
In his commitment to Lot, Abram never wavered. Years later when God determined to judge Sodom, Abraham stood and prayed over the city, believing that even a handful of righteous people, as few maybe as Lot’s wider family, could bring a sinful city to repentance.
Abraham was not presuming upon the grace of God in thinking in this way (as we know, an unrepentant Sodom was destroyed) but he did know the power of God’s grace in his own life and wanted to extend that grace to others.
May we today find ways of extending God’s grace to others.
Day 12 - Andrew: a follower finds fresh direction
We need to be journeying with Jesus.
Read: John 1:35-40
THEME: The first two chapters of John’s Gospel record significant encounters at the beginning of Jesus’ ministry. Meetings that were noteworthy for Jesus were even more important for those He met.
Andrew and a friend were standing with John the Baptist when John saw Jesus walking and pointedly said ‘Look, the Lamb of God’. The day before, when they had glimpsed Jesus, John had added ‘...who takes away the sin of the world’. What is more, these comments came after months of John telling all and sundry ‘He is the One who will baptise you with the Holy Spirit and fire’.
So it should come as no surprise that Andrew and his friend left John to follow Jesus. With so much on offer who could blame them! But after a few paces Jesus turned and asked them what they wanted. Being too polite to reel off their list they simply asked ‘Where are You staying?’, and that led to a day together, that turned out to be the first of many.
Now some think Andrew should have given Jesus that list: sins forgiven, a heart purified, a Holy Spirit empowering, and more. But it is easy for Christianity to become so commodified that our thinking lapses into ‘I’ll follow Jesus so I can get this’ or ‘I’ll try to keep pace with Him so I can receive that’. Of course, we need forgiving, purifying and empowering in order to have a close relationship with Him but it is the relationship that should be our aim.
‘Where are You staying?’ was a good question and ‘Where are You going?’ would have been a useful follow through.
We need to be journeying with Jesus.
Day 11 - John the Baptist: a meeting in the Jordan
The more widely we open our hearts, the more likely we are to discover the One we seek.
Read: John 1:29-34
THEME: The first two chapters of John’s Gospel record significant encounters at the beginning of Jesus’ ministry. Meetings that were noteworthy for Jesus were even more important for those He met.
When John the Baptist looked back to the day when he had baptised Jesus in the Jordan and had seen heaven open, he said ‘I didn’t know Him but God who sent me to baptise with water had told me that the One on whom I would see the Spirit descend and remain will be the One who baptises with the Holy Spirit’.
Now the interesting thing is that John and Jesus were related. Their mothers had met when they were pregnant and John’s mother had felt John leap for joy the day that Mary had visited to say she was expecting Jesus. This pre-birth encounter then led on to prophecies at John’s naming ceremony so that John was all set to announce the Messiah’s arrival. But it seems that despite all of this knowledge, John had not been able to bring things together in his mind. It took a revelation from God to bring home the truth when he was already out in the wilderness busy about God’s work.
We can too easily assume that having a few facts and figures and some impressive Bible knowledge will cause everything to fall into place. These are important but an open heart is important too. Even before John recognised Jesus as the Messiah, he had said ‘He who is coming after me is preferred before me and I’m not worthy to undo His sandal strap’.
The more widely we open our hearts, the more likely we are to discover the One we seek.
Day 10 - Nehemiah: chosen while cupbearer to a king
Let us be known as those who serve the Lord with cheerfulness.
Read: Nehemiah 2:1-5
THEME: We know that God is able to select whomever He wants to do whatever He chooses. He can also raise, mould and empower the least of us to do more than we can ask or imagine. Occasionally we get a glimpse of what catches His attention.
It seems strange to emphasise that Nehemiah was a cupbearer to a king when the Old Testament book that carries his name records the years he spent away from court overseeing Jerusalem and rebuilding its walls. But it was Nehemiah’s cheerfulness as a cupbearer in the Persian court (a role where tasting carried significant risks) that would have caught God’s attention, marking him out as a suitable governor for Jerusalem.
When news of Jerusalem’s devastation caused Nehemiah to feel downcast, the king was immediately able to recognise his change of disposition, given that this was the first time he had looked sad before his Persian master. After a brief conversation, which Nehemiah had preceded with an even briefer prayer, the king released his cupbearer from exile to spend a season in his homeland, serving God with his customary thoroughness and cheerfulness.
It should come as no surprise that it is in the book of Nehemiah that we read ‘the joy of the Lord is your strength’.
Let us be known as those who serve the Lord with cheerfulness.