February 23, 2023 – Our Daily Bread Devotional Message || ODB for Thursday
Read February 23, 2023 – Our Daily Bread Devotional || ODB for Thursday Message
READ THURSDAY ODB DEVOTIONAL, OUR DAILY BREAD 23RD FEBRUARY 2023 WRITTEN BY AMY BOUCHER PYE (OUR DAILY BREAD MINISTRIES)
TOPIC: Water of Life
BIBLE IN A YEAR: Numbers 7–8; Mark 4:21–41
KEY VERSE: Jesus answered her, “If you knew the gift of God and who it is that asks you for a drink, you would have asked him and he would have given you living water.” John 4:10
TODAY’S SCRIPTURE
John 4:4–14 (NIV)
4 Now he had to go through Samaria. 5 So he came to a town in Samaria called Sychar, near the plot of ground Jacob had given to his son Joseph. 6 Jacob’s well was there, and Jesus, tired as he was from the journey, sat down by the well. It was about noon.
7 When a Samaritan woman came to draw water, Jesus said to her, “Will you give me a drink?” 8 (His disciples had gone into the town to buy food.)
9 The Samaritan woman said to him, “You are a Jew and I am a Samaritan woman. How can you ask me for a drink?” (For Jews do not associate with Samaritans.[a])
10 Jesus answered her, “If you knew the gift of God and who it is that asks you for a drink, you would have asked him and he would have given you living water.”
11 “Sir,” the woman said, “you have nothing to draw with and the well is deep. Where can you get this living water? 12 Are you greater than our father Jacob, who gave us the well and drank from it himself, as did also his sons and his livestock?”
13 Jesus answered, “Everyone who drinks this water will be thirsty again, 14 but whoever drinks the water I give them will never thirst. Indeed, the water I give them will become in them a spring of water welling up to eternal life.”
INSIGHT FOR TODAY
In John 3, Nicodemus, a respected Jewish religious leader, sought Jesus at night (v. 2). In John 4, however, Christ initiates a conversation in the middle of the day with a woman from an ethnic group despised by the Jewish people Nicodemus taught. Yet Jesus engaged both individuals in lengthy conversation, with positive results. The woman at the well immediately went and asked the townspeople, “Could this be the Messiah?” (v. 29). After Jesus’ crucifixion, Nicodemus boldly identified himself with Christ by preparing His body for burial (19:38–40). Jesus’ ministry extends across all borders.
Our Daily Bread Devotional 23rd February 2023 MESSAGE
Andrea’s home life was unstable, and she left at fourteen, finding a job and living with friends. Yearning for love and affirmation, she later moved in with a man who introduced her to drugs, which she added to the alcohol she already drank regularly. But the relationship and the substances didn’t satisfy her longings. She kept searching, and after several years she met some believers in Jesus who reached out to her, offering to pray with her. A few months later, she finally found the One who would quench her thirst for love—Jesus.
The Samaritan woman at the well whom Jesus approached for water found her thirst satisfied too. She was there in the heat of the day (John 4:5–7), probably to avoid the stares and gossip of other women, who would have known her history of multiple husbands and her current adulterous relationship (vv. 17–18). When Jesus approached her and asked her for a drink, He bucked the social conventions of the day, for He, as a Jewish teacher, would not normally have associated with a Samaritan woman. But He wanted to give her the gift of living water that would lead her to eternal life (v. 10). He wanted to satisfy her thirst.
When we receive Jesus as our Savior, we too drink of this living water. We can then share a cup with others as we invite them to follow Him.
REFLECT: How do you think the woman at the well felt when Jesus asked her for some water? What does it mean to you to receive His living water?
PRAY: Father God, You welcome all who are thirsty to come to the waters and drink. Satisfy my thirst through Your living water.
Our Daily Bread Devotional 23 February 2023 || ODB for Thursday Message . Our Daily Bread Ministries (ODB) is a Christian organization founded by Dr. Martin De Haan in 1938. It is based in Grand Rapids, Michigan, with over 600 employees. It produces several devotional publications, including Our Daily Bread. our daily bread devotional for today audio our daily bread booklet.
