Worship in Spirit and Truth
Scripture Reading — John 4:1-14
"If you knew the gift of God ... you would have asked ... and he would have given you living water." John 4:10
How much would you pay for a drink? An unemployed German man sold his six-year-old stepdaughter's pet beagle for a beer. He was desperate to quench his thirst. But in callous disregard he trampled the tender spirit of a child.
The Samaritan woman in today's story had a thirst that needed to be quenched. The thirst was in her soul. And Jesus focused on her as a target for his grace.
He took a straight route through Samaria at a time when most Jews would go miles out of their way to skirt the land of a people they despised. Jesus met this woman at a well in Samaria, and he offered her water that could reach the driest places of her soul-where she needed refreshment most.
Jesus comes to us, too, in our deep need for living water. Though we might not realize it, we need him desperately-as a person who is dying of thirst in a desert wasteland.
Until our spiritual thirst is quenched by Jesus, it will never go away. We may try to relieve it with shopping, relationships, busyness, extreme sports, travel, or a variety of other "drinks." But Jesus makes us an offer. He says, "Whoever drinks the water I give ... will never thirst. Indeed, the water I give ... will become ... a spring of water welling up to eternal life."
<p>Dear Jesus, give me the water that none of the world's resources can supply. I accept it with gratitude for your grace. Quench my thirst, Lord, with the water of eternal life. Amen.</p>
About the author — Reginald Smith
Dr. Reginald Smith is senior pastor at Roosevelt Park Community Christian Reformed Church in Grand Rapids, Michigan, where he has served for seventeen years. He has also served as a pastor in Paterson, New Jersey. He and his wife, Sharon, have three daughters, Janelle, Katrina, and Mariah.
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