Rise Daily: March 8

Rise Daily: March 8

THIS WEEK’S THEME & PASSAGE

Changed Lives – John 4:1-26

This week’s sermon from the series “Where We are Going: The City and the Mission“

THIS WEEK’S MEMORY VERSE

Memorizing scripture is a way to keep God’s word close to our hearts. Each week we will select one verse of scripture to remember as a community.

John 4:14a
Whoever drinks of the water that I will give him will never be thirsty again.

THE WORD

Each day’s devotion will focus on one part of the week’s passage.

John 4:7-19
7 A woman from Samaria came to draw water. Jesus said to her, “Give me a drink.” 8 (For his disciples had gone away into the city to buy food.) 9 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.) 10 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.” 11 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? 12 Are you greater than our father Jacob? He gave us the well and drank from it himself, as did his sons and his livestock.” 13 Jesus said to her, “Everyone who drinks of this water will be thirsty again, 14 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.” 15 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.”

16 Jesus said to her, “Go, call your husband, and come here.” 17 The woman answered him, “I have no husband.” Jesus said to her, “You are right in saying, ‘I have no husband’; 18 for you have had five husbands, and the one you now have is not your husband. What you have said is true.” 19 The woman said to him, “Sir, I perceive that you are a prophet.

MEDITATION ON THE WORD

In our busyness and distraction, it is easy to skim through our reading rather than taking it in. Yet we believe this is the inspired word of God. Take a moment to pause, thank God for the scriptures and ask him to speak to you through them today.

This passage illustrates beautifully what St. Augustine wrote at the beginning of The Confessions: “Our hearts are restless until they find their rest in thee.” The Samaritan woman had gone from lover to lover, never finding what she was seeking for at the deepest level, because what she really needed could never be found there.

What do you really want in a lover? You want someone who really sees you and loves you to the core. Someone with whom, in the words of Genesis 2:25, you can be “naked and unashamed.”

Like anyone else, the Samaritan woman wanted this. She had been to that well five times and had never found it. And then there was Jesus.

Jesus offered her a love through the metaphor of water that would forever quench her thirst. He offers the same to us.

In all of our hearts’ longings is a basic desire to know and to be known and approved of: to find our soul’s rest in a love that’s secure. When we find that, we have found real satisfaction. And only one lover offers that in an unshakable way. When we find him, and as we grow to know him, we exchange our anxiety for peace, our fear for confidence, and our insecurity for generosity.

THIS WEEK’S RISE REFLECTION

Throughout the Bible, when we see God move in people’ heart with a new sense of resolve and calling, he or she is described as rising in response.

Abraham rises in response to God’s call; Hannah rises from despair to a new purpose; Samuel rises to anoint a new king; David rises after the death of his child, and we see Jesus command the paralytic to “Rise, take up your mat and walk.”

To rise is an act of both obedience and faith—a response to a calling and a step toward a future not yet seen. Now is a time to pray fervently, to seek God’s help, and to discern how the Spirit is leading you to rise and serve where He has placed you.

TODAY’S PRAYER

For your Heart: Honestly consider the driving desires of your heart. Ask God to reveal to you how those desires may be ultimately satisfied in Christ.

For your Church: Pray for those attending Redeemer Counseling Spring Renewal Groups, that those who meet together would find freedom and inspiration in Christ.

For our City: Pray that many New Yorkers, who have never considered Christianity, would be led to attend services in gospel-centered churches this Sunday—that they would be welcomed by those congregations and moved by the preaching of the gospel.