P.R.A.Y
PAUSE
REJOICE & REFLECT
ASK
YIELD
Personal Worship
Today we experience Jesus and his unlikely meeting with a Samaritan woman.
Together we will pray (P.R.A.Y.) each day – ‘P’: Pausing to be still as we come into the presence of the Lord. ‘R’: Rejoicing as we remember who our God is and what He has done, and Reflecting on His word. ‘A’: Asking God to help us and others. And ‘Y’: yielding to His will in accordance with His word.
As I come before you to pray, I still my thoughts and quiet my mind. I seek to make you the center of my focus.
Prayer of Approach
Lord, as I enter into this time would you speak to me through your Word? I am here for you. Let me experience all that you have for me today.
We choose to rejoice in the power of God’s Word, with all his people in Psalm 103:
The Lord works righteousness
and justice for all who are oppressed.
He made known his ways to Moses,
his acts to the people of Israel.
The Lord is merciful and gracious,
slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love.
He will not always chide,
nor will he keep his anger forever.
He does not deal with us according to our sins,
nor repay us according to our iniquities.
For as high as the heavens are above the earth,
so great is his steadfast love toward those who fear him;
as far as the east is from the west,
so far does he remove our transgressions from us.
As a father shows compassion to his children,
so the Lord shows compassion to those who fear him.
For he knows our frame;
he remembers that we are dust
Psalm 103:6-14
Today we are reflecting on the words of Scripture in John 4, where we read:
Now when Jesus learned that the Pharisees had heard that Jesus was making and baptizing more disciples than John (although Jesus himself did not baptize, but only his disciples), he left Judea and departed again for Galilee. And he had to pass through Samaria. So he came to a town of Samaria called Sychar, near the field that Jacob had given to his son Joseph. Jacob’s well was there; so Jesus, wearied as he was from his journey, was sitting beside the well. It was about the sixth hour.
A woman from Samaria came to draw water. Jesus said to her, “Give me a drink.” (For his disciples had gone away into the city to buy food.) The Samaritan woman said to him, “How is it that you, a Jew, ask for a drink from me, a woman of Samaria?” (For Jews have no dealings with Samaritans.) Jesus answered her, “If you knew the gift of God, and who it is that is saying to you, ‘Give me a drink,’ you would have asked him, and he would have given you living water.” The woman said to him, “Sir, you have nothing to draw water with, and the well is deep. Where do you get that living water? Are you greater than our father Jacob? He gave us the well and drank from it himself, as did his sons and his livestock.” Jesus said to her, “Everyone who drinks of this water will be thirsty again, but whoever drinks of the water that I will give him will never be thirsty again. The water that I will give him will become in him a spring of water welling up to eternal life.” The woman said to him, “Sir, give me this water, so that I will not be thirsty or have to come here to draw water.”
John 4:1-15
Jesus leaves Judea in southern Israel and is making his way to Galilee in northern Israel. In the middle of those two areas is Samaria. Our text says Jesus had to pass through. That does not mean logistically there was no other way. In fact, all “good” Jews would take the long route around Samaria in order to get to Galilee. They did this because of the bitter hatred Jews and Samaritans had for each other. They didn’t even want to be in each other vicinity that’s how bad it was. So Jesus was making a choice. He had to go to Samaria because he had to have this interaction with this woman. Jesus breaks another cultural norm by talking to this woman. Men and women did not have discussions like this outside of their families. We can deduce this woman is an outcast from all the other women in this town because she doesn’t go with them in the morning to get water from the well when the day is cooler. She goes at noon when no one else would be there purposefully to avoid any more awful interactions. She is surprised by Jesus and she is surprised by this offer of living water that satisfies her completely. The text continues after verse 15 and tells us that this woman was trying to satisfy her longings and desires in relationships with men. She has already had 5 husbands and is now living with another man. She has tried to fulfill herself with those relationships in a way that no relationship even the greatest has the ability to do. Jesus invites her to something far greater. To find satisfaction and fulfillment in the true source of Jesus Christ. We are just like this woman. It might not be relationships for us, but it could be a thousand other things that we seek to satisfy our longings and desires with and miss out on Jesus. Jesus is offering us the same thing today. To come and drink from him and the living water he offers us.
Lord, I ask that you would put me in this story today. Let me experience you in the same way the Samaritan woman did that day. What are you inviting me into?
Lord, you are the God who sees and knows all things and we ask that you hear our cries now. We cry out to you to bring about the supernatural spiritual awakening of your people. We ask that you would bring revival here at Rio, to the other churches in our community, to our city, and to our country. Begin first in us.
As I read the passage again slowly, I listen for anything that You would say to me in it. Help me see how to position my life in order to yield to your word.
Now when Jesus learned that the Pharisees had heard that Jesus was making and baptizing more disciples than John (although Jesus himself did not baptize, but only his disciples), he left Judea and departed again for Galilee. And he had to pass through Samaria. So he came to a town of Samaria called Sychar, near the field that Jacob had given to his son Joseph. Jacob’s well was there; so Jesus, wearied as he was from his journey, was sitting beside the well. It was about the sixth hour.
A woman from Samaria came to draw water. Jesus said to her, “Give me a drink.” (For his disciples had gone away into the city to buy food.) The Samaritan woman said to him, “How is it that you, a Jew, ask for a drink from me, a woman of Samaria?” (For Jews have no dealings with Samaritans.) Jesus answered her, “If you knew the gift of God, and who it is that is saying to you, ‘Give me a drink,’ you would have asked him, and he would have given you living water.” The woman said to him, “Sir, you have nothing to draw water with, and the well is deep. Where do you get that living water? Are you greater than our father Jacob? He gave us the well and drank from it himself, as did his sons and his livestock.” Jesus said to her, “Everyone who drinks of this water will be thirsty again, but whoever drinks of the water that I will give him will never be thirsty again. The water that I will give him will become in him a spring of water welling up to eternal life.” The woman said to him, “Sir, give me this water, so that I will not be thirsty or have to come here to draw water.”
John 4:1-15
Yielding Prayer
Lord, speak to me now and show me what you are inviting me into. Let me see that you are the true source of satisfaction that I am looking for. Forgive me for all the times that I seek after earthly things to do what only you can do for me. Show me the more that is waiting when I say yes to your invitation for living water.
Yielding Promise
And now, as I move into the day ahead, the Lord who loves me reminds me in Ephesians 3:
For this reason I bow my knees before the Father, from whom every family in heaven and on earth is named, that according to the riches of his glory he may grant you to be strengthened with power through his Spirit in your inner being, so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith—that you, being rooted and grounded in love, may have strength to comprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and length and height and depth, and to know the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge, that you may be filled with all the fullness of God.
Ephesians 3:14-19
Closing Prayer
Lord, enable me, by the power of the Holy Spirit, to love you today with all of my heart, soul, mind, and strength; and to serve you today, by loving and caring for others as I do my own self; and, to exalt you today, by telling the people in my world about the abundant and eternal life found only through faith in Jesus.
*The P.R.A.Y. acronym has been adapted from the Lectio 365 app.