John 4:31-34 - Real food

4:31-33

See how the concerns of the Samaritan woman and the disciples were very similar. The woman started off by being concerned just about water, and about the division between the Jews and the Samaritans (and between men and women). The disciples were little different. They too were surprised that Jesus had been speaking to a Samaritan woman, and now we see they are concerned about food. We so easily get concerned about our daily needs. Now our daily needs do matter, but they need to have a right place in our lives, they should not be all consuming.

They had been on a long journey and the disciples were concerned about Jesus’ need for food. Similarly we can be concerned about things in the church that do matter, but are not the top priority. We need above all to worship God, to know Jesus, to know the truth, to proclaim the truth and to live the truth. Jesus tells them that He has something that they do not know about. The disciples thought it was a secret supply of food, but Jesus was talking about something much more important.

4:34

The number one priority of most of us is our daily needs. In those days it was food and clothing, in our day we just think about money. Jesus lived for something much more important, to do the will of His Father. This is what motivated Him and kept Him going. We need to be the same. All sorts of things will happen in our lives, happen to us personally, and to the nation that we live in. Our number one priority must be to love and serve the Lord, this must be what keeps us going. If we do this we will find that we are able to rise above circumstances and to get through all sorts of situations. If we are going through tough times at the moment then one of the things we should do is to focus on doing God’s will, on serving Him. I emphasise again that this does not mean our daily needs do not matter, God knows that we need, but they must not dominate our lives. Living for Jesus should dominate our lives. And when we do this we will find that our anxiety about other things strangely diminishes, and that needs somehow get met, problems somehow get overcome.

Like Jesus, we must aim to finish the work that the Lord has given us to do.