Weekly Overview:
The Christmas season is a powerful and unique time of year to remember that Jesus came to make a way for us to be near God. In his life, death, and resurrection, Jesus built a bridge between us and God allowing us to have continual, unhindered communion with our Creator. But God can’t force us into nearness with him. Even as believers filled with the Holy Spirit, we can choose to live as if God is still far off. So this Christmas season, may we choose to open our hearts to the living God that we might experience fullness of joy in his loving presence.
Scripture:
“If you knew the gift of God, and who it is that is saying to you, ‘Give me a drink,’ you would have asked him, and he would have given you living water.” John 4:10
Devotional:
In John 4:7-15 we find a powerful metaphor illustrating God’s heart for his people:
A woman from Samaria came to draw water. Jesus said to her, “Give me a drink.” (For his disciples had gone away into the city to buy food.) The Samaritan woman said to him, “How is it that you, a Jew, ask for a drink from me, a woman of Samaria?” (For Jews have no dealings with Samaritans.) Jesus answered her, “If you knew the gift of God, and who it is that is saying to you, Give me a drink, you would have asked him, and he would have given you living water.” The woman said to him, “Sir, you have nothing to draw water with, and the well is deep. Where do you get that living water? Are you greater than our father Jacob? He gave us the well and drank from it himself, as did his sons and his livestock.” Jesus said to her, “Everyone who drinks of this water will be thirsty again, but whoever drinks of the water that I will give him will never be thirsty again. The water that I will give him will become in him a spring of water welling up to eternal life.” The woman said to him, “Sir, give me this water, so that I will not be thirsty or have to come here to draw water.”
We were created with an insatiable thirst for relationship with God. We were made to experience true rest and satisfaction in one place and from one relationship: intimacy with the Father. In Jesus we find what our hearts have been looking for from our first breath. In Jesus we find a pathway to the Father not formed by our exploration or wandering, but by his steadfast love and unceasing pursuit.
Jesus looks to you and me today and offers us life-giving water that satiates our most foundational thirst. He places within us “a spring of water welling up to eternal life.” He gives us clear, boundless access to intimacy with God that our hearts might overflow with rivers of his loving-kindness. And this love isn’t something we have to strive for. It’s not something we have to work to earn. Rather, it’s a free gift, like salvation, that we can simply open our hearts to and receive.
Take time today to receive what God so freely gives. Find rest and purpose in intimacy with your Creator. Cease your striving and open your heart to the God who’s loved you from the first. And drink deeply of the endless well of God’s steadfast love.
Guided Prayer:
1. Meditate on God as your source of satisfaction and life.
“If you knew the gift of God, and who it is that is saying to you, ‘Give me a drink,’ you would have asked him, and he would have given you living water.” John 4:10
“With joy you will draw water from the wells of salvation.” Isaiah 12:3
2. Where do you need the life-giving waters of God’s presence today? Where do you need him to fill you up that you might operate from a place of overflow?
“For I will pour water on the thirsty land, and streams on the dry ground; I will pour my Spirit upon your offspring, and my blessing on your descendants.” Isaiah 44:3
3. Draw from the waters of God’s love. Receive his presence and find rest for your soul in his steadfast love.
“He makes me lie down in green pastures. He leads me beside still waters. He restores my soul.” Psalm 23:2-3
When we live as those fulfilled by God’s goodness, we are positioned to see Heaven come to earth. Psalm 84:5-7 says,
Blessed are those whose strength is in you, in whose heart are the highways to Zion. As they go through the Valley of Baca they make it a place of springs; the early rain also covers it with pools. They go from strength to strength; each one appears before God in Zion.
The Valley of Baca was the driest place in the area. It wasn’t a place marked by springs or early rain. But when God’s people spend time following their hearts to his presence, or Zion, he makes what was dry and weary a place filled with life and health. He takes what was once desolate and makes it fertile and life-giving. Trust that as you spend time with the Lord he will make you an instrument of his kingdom. Trust that as your heart is transformed by his love that he will use you to transform the world around you. May you be a powerful instrument of renewal and redemption today as you live from a place of intimacy with your Creator.
Extended Reading: Psalm 84
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