MONDAY: OPEN YOUR EYES & LOOK
KEY PASSAGE
Don’t you have a saying, ‘It’s still four months until harvest’? I tell you, open your eyes and look at the fields! They are ripe for harvest.
I encourage you to read the full story in John 4:1-44
DEVOTIONAL
Our key passage lands right in the middle of a beautiful story about Jesus in His going. (Remember, going isn’t always going someplace far. It is often “as you go” about your day). As Jesus walked through Samaria, a nearby town that people adamantly avoided, He stopped for a drink of water. He met a woman who adamantly avoided people and asked her for a drink.
During their encounter— as many true encounters with Jesus go— this woman was radically transformed. So much so that when she went back to her town, many people came to know the gospel and love of God solely because of her transformation.
When the disciples caught up to Jesus, they offered Him food. He ought to be hungry from His long day traveling through the dishonorable town. But Jesus’ rejected the food saying:
“My food is to do the will of him who sent me and to finish his work” (v. 34).
Jesus equates doing the will of God to two things:
He equates the will of God with His own purpose. The food God gave Jesus is to do what God asks. Jesus fully accepted to “eat,” or complete, whatever God tasked Him with.
He equates the satisfaction of acting in obedience to the will of God to the satisfaction of feeling full from a delicious meal.
Then Jesus says the following: “Don’t you have a saying, ‘It’s still four months until harvest’? I tell you, open your eyes and look at the fields! They are ripe for harvest” (v. 35). The disciples were uncomfortable in Samaria. This whole trip was inconvenient. They didn’t want to interact with the people or be seen there. But if Jesus had the same mindset as the disciples, an entire town would’ve missed the chance to receive the gospel and love of God. We have to open our eyes and look. There are opportunities everywhere to spread God’s love.
CHALLENGE
If you currently see your life with God through the lens of obligation, take a break from whatever you feel obligated to do. Ask God for an outpouring of His love into your life. Give Him time and space to do this for you.
If you are living out of God’s love for you but are struggling to love someone, tell God why that person is hard to love. Then ask God to reframe the way you see them, no longer from a worldly point of view, but as someone who could be or who is a new creation is Christ Jesus.
TUESDAY: COMPELLED TO LOVE
KEY PASSAGE
For Christ’s love compels us, because we are convinced that one died for all, and therefore all died. And he died for all, that those who live should no longer live for themselves but for him who died for them and was raised again.
So from now on we regard no one from a worldly point of view. Though we once regarded Christ in this way, we do so no longer. Therefore if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come! … We are therefore Christ’s ambassadors…
DEVOTIONAL
Do you remember the first time you felt the love of Jesus? Maybe you were heartbroken and you had an undeniable encounter with Him that encouraged your spirit. Or you were sick and experienced a radical healing that filled you with joy. Maybe you were in a Sunday School classroom as a kid and heard the gospel for the first time and were overcome with awe. Or your grandma dragged you to church and the sermon preached straight to your soul and in that moment you knew God has always seen you.
I don’t know what that moment was like for you but my guess is, if you are reading this devotional, your story feels something like this: I was lost, but now I’m found. I was blind, but now I see… At some point, you encountered the love of God. And at some point, you decided to love Him back. With those memories in mind, re-read the key passage.
You are Christ’s ambassador to bring the gospel forth. Not because you are obligated, but because His love compels you.
Compel means “to bring something about by force or pressure.” If you are compelled to do something, you can’t help but do it. The gospel pours out of you because of the love God pours into you.
CHALLENGE
If you currently see your life with God through the lens of obligation, take a break from whatever you feel obligated to do. Ask God for an outpouring of His love into your life. Give Him time and space to do this for you.
If you are living out of God’s love for you but are struggling to love someone, tell God why that person is hard to love. Then ask God to reframe the way you see them, no longer from a worldly point of view, but as someone who could be or who is a new creation is Christ Jesus.
WEDNESDAY: PRAY FOR BOLDNESS
KEY PASSAGE
“Now, Lord, consider their threats and enable your servants to speak your word with great boldness. Stretch out your hand to heal and perform signs and wonders through the name of your holy servant Jesus.” After they prayed, the place where they were meeting was shaken. And they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and spoke the word of God boldly.
DEVOTIONAL
Peter and John had just been released from jail for preaching about Jesus. The priests and rulers made threats and commanded them to stop speaking the name of Jesus in the streets (Acts 4:18, 21). When Peter and John return to their people, everyone’s first response was to pray together.
Acts 4:29-30 are the final words of their prayer, in which they ask the Lord to give them boldness to speak the Word and ask the Lord to heal and perform miracles through the name of Jesus. Praying together and calling on the name of Jesus is a bold act already. They had just been arrested for and warned against doing that. It is interesting that they are already praying boldly while asking for boldness. Their concern was not for their own well-being but for the will of God and His Word to be known. Their knowledge of who Jesus is and their faith in the power of God gave them boldness to pray. Their prayers were answered in verse 31 as they were “filled with the Holy Spirit.”
What threats are you facing? There may be legitimate risks to speaking the Word of God in your workplace, home, school, or friend group. Consider the threats you face just on social media. What does speaking with great boldness look like in your life?
The disciples asked God to measure the threats: “Now, Lord, consider their threats.” Can anything truly threaten God? Nothing is a threat to Him. And He will not fail to protect those who love Him and acknowledge His name (Psalms 91:14). To believe in God’s will is to believe that the battle belongs to Him (1 Samuel 17:47).
What was true for the disciples is true for us. When we ask God to give us the boldness to speak and work for Him, He gives the Holy Spirit to speak and work through us.
CHALLENGE
Is there someone in your life who has rejected Jesus? Have you let your frustrations and judgments keep you from reaching them with the gospel of Christ?
Beautiful are the feet of those who bring good news. Maybe you need a pedicure.
Maybe your feet are dusty. That doesn’t mean they can’t still bring the good news.
Ask the Lord to create in you a clean heart . . . to wash your feet. Let the good news of Jesus travel with you.
THURSDAY: BEAUTIFUL FEET CARRY THE GOOD NEWS
KEY PASSAGE
How, then, can they call on the one they have not believed in? And how can they believe in the one of whom they have not heard? And how can they hear without someone preaching to them? And how can anyone preach unless they are sent? As it is written: “How beautiful are the feet of those who bring good news!”
DEVOTIONAL
Don’t judge a person until you have walked a mile in their shoes. That’s a common phrase about trying to see things from someone else’s perspective. How can we judge someone else for not seeing things our way if they didn’t grow up our way, learn our way, or go our way? When it comes to sharing the gospel it is easy to forget to have that kind of empathy. It is easy to judge people who don’t share our beliefs, especially when their unbelief is offensive to us. It can be even more offensive when they are close to us—in the same family or social group. However, if Jesus is calling everyone to Him and everyone who calls on Him will be saved, then we cannot let our judgments get in the way.
In Romans 10, Paul asks us to walk in someone else’s shoes, specifically the Jews who know God and follow the law but reject Jesus. These were Paul’s people and they were particularly frustrating for him, but he doesn’t allow his feelings to turn to judgment. Instead, he considers their viewpoint with empathy. His logic goes like this:
How could they be saved without believing? How could they believe without hearing? How could they hear without being told? How could they be told unless we tell them? How can we blame them?
Paul’s train of thought stops with those who are sent: Christians. We are sent to preach the good news. People are saved by Jesus because people who are saved by Jesus tell them about Jesus. If we don’t go, how will they know?
By standing in someone else’s shoes we are able to see our calling more clearly. “Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved” (Romans 10:13), not just those who look, talk, or live like us—everyone. We need to put our feet in their shoes and we need to be the feet that go. How beautiful are the feet of those who bring good news! We are the feet.
CHALLENGE
Is there someone in your life who has rejected Jesus? Have you let your frustrations and judgments keep you from reaching them with the gospel of Christ?
Beautiful are the feet of those who bring good news. Maybe you need a pedicure.
Maybe your feet are dusty. That doesn’t mean they can’t still bring the good news.
Ask the Lord to create in you a clean heart . . . to wash your feet. Let the good news of Jesus travel with you.
FRIDAY: GOD GROWS IT
KEY PASSAGE
I planted the seed, Apollos watered it, but God has been making it grow. So neither the one who plants nor the one who waters is anything, but only God, who makes things grow.
DEVOTIONAL
Parents receive a lot of unsolicited advice. Some of it helpful, most of it not. But the most common and most helpful advice said to me was this: “It takes a village!” It’s true about raising kids and supporting parents. You cannot do it alone.
This is also true about bringing people to Jesus and making disciples— it takes a village!
Paul (who wrote the key passage), was working tirelessly to bring the gospel forward. So was Apollos, another believer. People in the church felt obligated to pick one apostle to follow and listen to— either Paul or Apollos. But Paul calls this unnecessary, as their purpose is one and the same— share the gospel and make disciples. He is saying, “It takes a village!”
You have no control over how many believers interact with someone who needs Jesus. But you can control how you interact with that person. It takes many encounters with many faithful and loving believers to make the decision to come to Jesus. Your faithful and loving interaction matters. The Kingdom needs YOU in the village, spreading the gospel and making disciples.
But, the work of the village is not only done by believers. God Himself works in the village. Paul says: “I planted the seed, Apollos watered it, but God has been making it grow… only God, who makes things grow.” This beautiful reminder provides both purpose and protection.
Your purpose is to play your part. The seed isn’t planted or watered without you. The village isn’t as good, effective, or efficient without you in it.
Your protection is that the growing of root and fruit is not your responsibility. Only God causes seeds to take root and bear fruit. The creation and effectiveness of other believers is not on you. The success of the village is not on your shoulders.
CHALLENGE
Take a moment to sit with God and reflect on the following questions:
Are you participating in the village? Are you sharing the gospel? Do you love others well?
Are you discouraged about seeds you have planted and watered? Are you not seeing growth? Are you carrying the weight of their salvation? Be honest with God about how you feel being a part of the village— the Church, the larger body of believers. Ask Him to reveal what He sees in you and what He is doing in the lives of those you are trying to reach.