Worshippers the Father Seeks

Most of us have a part of our past we would rather nobody brought up, and some of us avoid certain people or places because of it. The woman Jesus met in John 4 knew that feeling well.

Jesus met her at a well "about the sixth hour," around midday, in the heat. She came to draw water alone, and by the end of the conversation you can guess why, because Jesus tells her, "thou hast had five husbands; and he whom thou now hast is not thy husband." When He gets that close, she changes the subject to religion. More exactly, she changes it to the right place to worship: "Our fathers worshipped in this mountain; and ye say, that in Jerusalem is the place where men ought to worship." It is one of the oldest moves there is. If the talk can become a debate about the right address, it is no longer about her.

Jesus does not take up the debate, and He does not let the subject drop either. He moves worship beyond any one place: "the hour cometh, and now is." To worship "in spirit" means worshipping from your real self, without putting on a performance. To worship "in truth" means more than being sincere, because Jesus has just told her plainly that "salvation is of the Jews." God wants worship that is both honest and true.

Then comes a remarkable line: "the Father seeketh such to worship him." The Father does more than allow such worshippers or accept them. He goes looking for them. And the person Jesus found that day was a woman with a painful past who had come to the well by herself.

So there may be a true thing you have never said to God because it sounded too ugly. You are welcome to say it to Him today. Honest words like that are the kind of worship Jesus is describing here. And the next time you face the place or the people you have been avoiding, you can go as someone God came looking for. He was seeking you before you decided anything about it.

Daily Manna runs on a two-year cycle. The year two reading for day 354 is That Ye May Prove (Romans 12:2).

All 365 readings in Daily Manna