Read 2 Kings 9, Micah 3, and John 4.
This devotional is about John 4.
Jesus was tired when he met the woman at the well. We know he was tired because verse 6 told us, “Jesus, tired as he was from the journey, sat down by the well….” Despite being tired, Jesus began talking with the woman (v. 7), led her to trust him (v.29), and also saved others who came to faith through her testimony (v. 41).
The disciples went into town to buy food (cf. v. 8) and were surprised when they returned and found him talking to a Samaritan woman (v. 27). The woman herself was surprised that Jesus spoke to her (v. 9), but she was drawn quickly into the conversation both by Jesus’s offer of living water (vv. 10-15) and his supernatural knowledge of her life (vv. 16-18). At the end of their conversation, Jesus revealed himself to the woman when he said, “I, the one speaking to you–I am he [Messiah]” (v. 26).
When the woman left the well (v. 28), it seemed like the perfect opportunity to eat (v. 31). Each of us knows how a meal can raise our energy level when we’re tired, so the antidote to Jesus’s fatigue seemed to be the food the disciples went and bought.
But Jesus refused to eat and made a cryptic statement about having “food to eat that you know nothing about” (v. 32). He clarified that doing the Father’s will was his food (v. 34). It energized him to know that the woman at the well was now regenerated and was bringing everyone she could out to hear the gospel, too.
Have you ever had an experience like this? Have you ever been so focused and excited while serving the Lord that you forgot, for a time, your need for food or sleep? Hear the excitement in Jesus’s words when he told the disciples, “…open your eyes and look at the fields! They are ripe for harvest” (v. 35).
Jesus was human and, of course, he needed food and sleep like every human being does. But he rested and ate so that he serve the the Father’s will and, even when he was weary, found energy in the salvation of lost souls.
Are you tired in your life? Discouraged? Look for someone to share the gospel with or a fellow believer who needs to be discipled. Seeing God work through your life and witness can be a powerful stimulus in your life.