Rise Daily: March 9

Rise Daily: March 9

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 4:13-15
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.”

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.

In this portion of this week’s passage, we see a contrast in value between the ordinary water the woman repeatedly returned to, and the kind of water she had never tasted, but ultimately longed for, the water to be desired above all other waters.

We each possess a scale of values in which something holds ultimate place. We have that Pearl of Great Price, that something we love, and for which we would lose all else to gain or retain.

In The City of God, St. Augustine describes and evaluates this ordering of the things we love:

When the miser prefers his gold to justice, it is through no fault of the gold, but of the man; and so with every created thing. For though it be good, it may be loved with an evil as well as with a good love: it is loved rightly when it is loved ordinately; evilly, when inordinately It is this which someone has briefly said in these verses in praise of the Creator: “These are Thine. They are good, because Thou art good who didst create them. There is in them nothing of ours, unless the sin we commit when we forget the order of things, and instead of Thee love that which Thou hast made.”[1]

In this way, Augustine describes the futility of idolatry: ascribing powers to created things that are the sole possession of the Creator. When we put our hope in anything but God we are doomed to disappointment. An idol can never deliver.

Think of this in terms of the most sublime of earthly loves between a husband and wife. What sets this love apart is that two people, radically different from each other, choose to commit themselves to one another. This is an aspect of love that even the parent-child relationship lacks.

And yet, marriages, even good marriages, experience the pains that come when two people of Adam’s race collide. Only the grace of God, whether recognized or not, can ensure endurance. Consider this thought from a letter by C.S. Lewis:

When I have learnt to love God better than my earthly dearest, I shall love my earthly dearest better than I do now. In so far as I learn to love my earthly dearest at the expense of God and instead of God, I shall be moving towards the state in which I shall not love my earthly dearest at all. When first things are put first, second things are not suppressed but increased.[2]

And so it is with anything in which we rest our hope for ultimate happiness. When we love God first, we love all else best.

1. Augustine of Hippo, “The City of God,” in St. Augustine’s City of God and Christian Doctrine, ed. Philip Schaff, trans. Marcus Dods, vol. 2, A Select Library of the Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers of the Christian Church, First Series (Buffalo, NY: Christian Literature Company, 1887), 303.
2. C. S. Lewis, The Collected Letters of C. S. Lewis, ed. Walter Hooper, vol. 3 (New York: HarperCollins e-books; HarperSanFrancisco, 2004–2007), 247.

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: Re-commit to making the love of God primary in your heart, so that all other worthy loves will be rightly ordered under this first principle.

For your Church: Pray that our congregations will reflect the sacrificial love for each other that comes from giving God his primary place in our hearts.

For our City: Pray that the affiliate ministries of Hope for New York would continue to share the generous love of God with our neighbors in tangible ways.