Hearing God’s Voice from His Word
James 4:8 says, “Come near to God and he will come near to you.”
Take a moment and turn your attention to God. Tell God that you desire to trust and obey Him. Ask God to speak to you from His word.
Psalm of the Day
Psalm 16:1-2
Protect me, God, for I take refuge in you.
2 I said to the Lord, “You are my Lord;
I have nothing good besides you.”
Read the Entire Psalm
Nothing good beside you. God is the source of all that is good. If you could live in a world void of God, it would have no good in it, because there is no good outside of God. Take a moment and just consider some of God’s goodness in your life. Thank him for he is good and his faithful love endures forever.
SCRIPTURE READING:
John 4:31-54 – The Message
It’s Harvest Time
31 In the meantime, the disciples pressed him, “Rabbi, eat. Aren’t you going to eat?”
32 He told them, “I have food to eat you know nothing about.”
33 The disciples were puzzled. “Who could have brought him food?”
34-35 Jesus said, “The food that keeps me going is that I do the will of the One who sent me, finishing the work he started. As you look around right now, wouldn’t you say that in about four months it will be time to harvest? Well, I’m telling you to open your eyes and take a good look at what’s right in front of you. These Samaritan fields are ripe. It’s harvest time!
36-38 “The Harvester isn’t waiting. He’s taking his pay, gathering in this grain that’s ripe for eternal life. Now the Sower is arm in arm with the Harvester, triumphant. That’s the truth of the saying, ‘This one sows, that one harvests.’ I sent you to harvest a field you never worked. Without lifting a finger, you have walked in on a field worked long and hard by others.”
39-42 Many of the Samaritans from that village committed themselves to him because of the woman’s witness: “He knew all about the things I did. He knows me inside and out!” They asked him to stay on, so Jesus stayed two days. A lot more people entrusted their lives to him when they heard what he had to say. They said to the woman, “We’re no longer taking this on your say-so. We’ve heard it for ourselves and know it for sure. He’s the Savior of the world!”
* * *
43-45 After the two days he left for Galilee. Now, Jesus knew well from experience that a prophet is not respected in the place where he grew up. So when he arrived in Galilee, the Galileans welcomed him, but only because they were impressed with what he had done in Jerusalem during the Passover Feast, not that they really had a clue about who he was or what he was up to.
46-48 Now he was back in Cana of Galilee, the place where he made the water into wine. Meanwhile in Capernaum, there was a certain official from the king’s court whose son was sick. When he heard that Jesus had come from Judea to Galilee, he went and asked that he come down and heal his son, who was on the brink of death. Jesus put him off: “Unless you people are dazzled by a miracle, you refuse to believe.”
49 But the court official wouldn’t be put off. “Come down! It’s life or death for my son.”
50-51 Jesus simply replied, “Go home. Your son lives.”
The man believed the bare word Jesus spoke and headed home. On his way back, his servants intercepted him and announced, “Your son lives!”
52-53 He asked them what time he began to get better. They said, “The fever broke yesterday afternoon at one o’clock.” The father knew that that was the very moment Jesus had said, “Your son lives.”
53-54 That settled it. Not only he but his entire household believed. This was now the second sign Jesus gave after having come from Judea into Galilee.
Having God’s Ear through Prayer
- Express thanksgiving to God.
- Ask the Holy Spirit to reveal sin to you.
- Confess your sin to Him and receive forgiveness.
(1 John 1:9 “If we confess our sin He is faithful and just and will forgive our sins.”) - Bring your personal requests to God.
(Psalm 62:8 “Pour out your heart before God”) - Pray for someone in your small group.
- Join with others from River and pray today for Onelink. They are currently conducting training for students traveling overseas this summer and will be doing another training next week in Salina.
Living as God’s People by applying the Bible
Scripture Reflection from the Sermon
“After two days he left there for Galilee. (Jesus himself had testified that a prophet has no honor in his own country.) When they entered Galilee, the Galileans welcomed him because they had seen everything he did in Jerusalem during the festival. For they also had gone to the festival.”
John 4
John indicates that something is amiss in the welcome of the Galileans, Jesus’ home folks. We see this in the parenthetical remark where Jesus said a prophet has no honor in his own country. John is contrasting the response of the Samaritans with the Lord’s “people.” The Samaritan responded to the truth of the Lord’s words while these Galileans responded to the miracles they had seen or heard about in Jerusalem. Later many, if not most of these, would walk away from Jesus. What do you expect from your relationship with Christ? What exactly has he promised you? It is likely that since you are reading this devotional and taking the time to grow your relationship with Christ, you don’t have wrong expectations, or at least you are working to dispel them by time in his Word. Very often the people who have wrong ideas about what God has promised are not actually taking the time to get to know God personally. If they read the Bible, they often do so either critically or with an eye to find what they want to find there. We must come to God’s word and allow it to critique us, not the other way around. We must come to God’s word to find what God has said in it, not looking for what we want to be there. Truth is a beautiful thing, even when it is hard. We never want to embrace illusion, even when, or especially when it simply makes us “feel” better in the moment.