10/11/16
The earliest Christians followed a Jewish tradition of pausing to pray, preferably together, first thing in the morning, about mid morning, at noon, about mid afternoon, and in the evening. “Just a Note” posts are brief observations made from Scripture readings not related to a lectionary. If I have one to post, it normally appears about 9:00 in the morning, at “the hour of prayer.”
Jesus’ disciples are confronted with an odd situation in John 4:31-38. They have gone into a town to get food. Jesus now is not hungry. Why not? Did someone bring him food? Jesus’ response is that he has food that they don’t know about. This is the strength that comes of doing the Father’s will.
Jesus points out to his disciples that they can expect a harvest of people. The fields are white for the harvest - everything seems to be ripe. As the disciples look up through the field toward the city, they see people coming to hear Jesus. The harvest is upon them.
We may not always see the results of ministry work. We almost certainly will not fully understand the results we do see. Yet we can have confidence that Jesus is completing his work in us and others through his Word. We can also trust that we will have the strength to complete whatever the Lord has appointed.
Do we feel weary? Is it time to stop work for a time? A harvester does stop work at the end of the day. While we look for divine sustenance, we find that the Lord gives us rest. Some of that rest comes from the confidence that it is not our work which brings results, but Gods work.
The fields are ready for the harvest. May we have grace to work diligently and to lay down the burden at the end of a day’s work.
If this brief meditation was helpful to you, I hope you will check out the other materials on our website at www.WittenbergCoMo.com and consider supporting us.
The earliest Christians followed a Jewish tradition of pausing to pray, preferably together, first thing in the morning, about mid morning, at noon, about mid afternoon, and in the evening. “Just a Note” posts are brief observations made from Scripture readings not related to a lectionary. If I have one to post, it normally appears about 9:00 in the morning, at “the hour of prayer.”
Jesus’ disciples are confronted with an odd situation in John 4:31-38. They have gone into a town to get food. Jesus now is not hungry. Why not? Did someone bring him food? Jesus’ response is that he has food that they don’t know about. This is the strength that comes of doing the Father’s will.
Jesus points out to his disciples that they can expect a harvest of people. The fields are white for the harvest - everything seems to be ripe. As the disciples look up through the field toward the city, they see people coming to hear Jesus. The harvest is upon them.
We may not always see the results of ministry work. We almost certainly will not fully understand the results we do see. Yet we can have confidence that Jesus is completing his work in us and others through his Word. We can also trust that we will have the strength to complete whatever the Lord has appointed.
Do we feel weary? Is it time to stop work for a time? A harvester does stop work at the end of the day. While we look for divine sustenance, we find that the Lord gives us rest. Some of that rest comes from the confidence that it is not our work which brings results, but Gods work.
The fields are ready for the harvest. May we have grace to work diligently and to lay down the burden at the end of a day’s work.
If this brief meditation was helpful to you, I hope you will check out the other materials on our website at www.WittenbergCoMo.com and consider supporting us.
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