My nourishment is doing God's Will

John 4:34: Jesus said, “My nourishment comes from doing the will of God, who sent me and from finishing His work.”

Jesus is in Samaria, a very strange place for Jesus to be. No self-respecting Jew would have anything do with Samaria or the residents there. But that is Jesus, isn’t it? He’s always going places he shouldn’t, talking to people he shouldn’t, showing compassion to those who don’t deserve it, talking with “outcasts”. In general, everything he does is "wrong" according to the norms of the times and area.

The verse above tells us a little of the reason why he lives this way and does these things. Jesus said, “My nourishment comes from doing the will of God, who sent me and from finishing His work. His very life depended on his need to do God's will. He was filled, nourished, sustained only by doing the will of God and by finishing that work that God gives Him to do. From that we have to conclude that God wants Jesus to reach out of those who don't deserve it, to those who live in the wrong places and do the wrong things. God's will is for Jesus to stir up the established way of doing things and treating people. To be satisfied, Jesus has to do just that.

John 4:14 “but those who drink of the water I give will never be thirsty again.”

In doing God's will, in Samaria, to a woman, a sinner at that, Jesus offers her living water. This living water is what will bring her satisfaction - satisfaction that her many husbands and current live-in can't bring. He offers her an opportunity to know something that no one else in the area knows - that Jesus is the Messiah (verse 26). That Jesus offers her and others like her hope, satisfaction, fulfillment. This satisfaction and fulfillment that Jesus offers is the very thing that nourishes Jesus. We nourish Jesus when we are satisfied and no longer thirst because of the living water. What a thought!

Dear Jesus, I so much appreciate Your need and desire to do God's will. I also appreciate that God's will includes satisfying me through You. I only hope that I can strive to nourished the same way....through obedience to God's will. Please help me do that. Amen.

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