What Feeds You?

Scripture:

John 4:31   Meanwhile the disciples were urging him, “Rabbi, eat something.”  32 But he said to them, “I have food to eat that you do not know about.”  33 So the disciples said to one another, “Surely no one has brought him something to eat?”  34 Jesus said to them, “My food is to do the will of him who sent me and to complete his work.

Observation:

Jesus had just been speaking with the Samaritan woman at the well. His disciples had gone off to find food and were returning with a snack. They were encouraging him to eat, quite sure that he would be hungry. However, after his encounter with the woman at the well, he was no longer hungry. He was filled with the food of accomplishing the Father’s will. Jesus’ life and ministry revealed that he was hungry for the salvation of the men and women whom he encountered.

Application:

In our call to Christlikness we are also called to Christ's passions. What fed Christ should also feed us. We are to be hungry to take the good news to those who are lost. There truly is nothing much more exciting than ministering to people in the name of Jesus.

While serving in the former Soviet Union we often had groups come over which are called, “Work and Witness teams.” For a concentrated period of ten days to two weeks these individuals would come to do physical work on a building or project of some kind, but also engage in intentional outreach. The energy that our guests received from doing this work was quite astounding. Doing the work of the Father filled them!

Jesus found great satisfaction in helping people find their way back to God. No, this didn’t substitute for his need for physical food, but it fed him in other ways. We can be fed by the joy of service to God when we follow Christ out to the harvest fields. Unfortunately I don’t hear many Christians talking these days about their passion for the harvest. We seem a bit caught up in our own busyness and it may be that the result is a lack of passion for Christ and the lost — and a dissatisfaction. We are left hungry and empty for we are not being fed.

I hear that people leave churches because they are “not being fed.” Jesus wasn’t fed by others, he was fed by doing the work of the Father. If we are waiting around for others to feed us we may just be getting it all wrong. What feeds us should be doing the Father’s will and following him to the needy corners of our world. It takes getting your hands dirty and reaching out to those who desperately want to hear about him.

What will feed you today? An expectation that someone will bring you food — or will you be fed by the joy of telling others about Christ?

Prayer:

Lord, may I be fed by the joy of your service.   Amen.
 

Thank you to Nazarene Publishing House and Keri Mitchell for helping to create and publish Reflecting the Image. This is not a devotional book, but rather a collection of thoughts and stories which lead us in the direction of reflecting Christ. Click on the image to take you to the NPH bookstore.The book is also available in Kindle format on Amazon.com.