Month: March 2023

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 . . . Everyone who drinks this water will be thirsty again, 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.”
John 4:10,13,14

A gushing spring of living water!

Daily Devotion – March 16, 2023

Devotion based on John 4:10,13,14

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A person who has felt the guilt of a specific sin or ongoing struggle with temptation may say or at least think, “If people really knew me, how could they love me?” Maybe something like that ran through the Samaritan woman’s mind as she first encountered Jesus, but then she discovered that Jesus really did know her. The truth was out in the open!

But then Jesus flips that thought and says, “If you really knew me… If you knew who it is that asks you for a drink, you would have asked him and he would have given you living water.” A guilt-ridden soul thinks, “If people really knew me, they’d run in the other direction.” Jesus, true God, really does know us to the core, but he doesn’t run away! He offers living water—the kind that quenches the deepest spiritual thirst caused by guilt and shame. This water doesn’t dry up or just keep you going for the day. This water gives eternal life.

Picture a desert where water is scarce. You have to dig down deep to find water that is essential for physical life. Now picture a gushing spring of water. It bubbles up and spills over; there’s an endless supply. That’s the picture Jesus paints for a spiritually thirsty soul beside a well. This living water that Jesus gives is not a shallow pool or babbling brook. It’s gushing over in an endless supply.

Jesus gives us more than just a sip of this living water, more than a drop on a thirsty tongue. It’s an endless fountain of God’s love and forgiveness, gushing over. That fountain never runs dry because the living water that Jesus gives is eternal life.

Prayer:
Jesus, meet me beside the waters of your Word where I find relief from the guilt of sin and the refreshing flood of your forgiveness. Amen.

Daily Devotions are brought to you by WELS and www.WhatAboutJesus.com.

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 United States License.

All Scripture quotations, unless otherwise indicated, are taken from the Holy Bible, New International Version®, NIV®. Copyright ©1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc. Used by permission of Zondervan. All rights reserved worldwide.

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.) 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 4:9,10

Thirsting for acceptance.

Daily Devotion – March 15, 2023

Devotion based on John 4:9,10

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He simply asked her for a drink of water, and suddenly the true thirst spilled out. “How can you ask me for a drink?” She was shocked that Jesus would talk to her before she even knew who Jesus really was. She recognized that Jesus was a Jewish man. Jews looked down on Samaritans because they were not full-blooded Jews. On top of that, Jesus revealed that this woman had been married five times, and the man she was currently with was not her husband.

Jesus exposed her real spiritual thirst by simply asking for a drink of water. She thirsted for love and acceptance, but she was looking in all the wrong places to quench that thirst. We might seek approval from peers or acceptance through a relationship that becomes more important than a relationship with God. Our world has a twisted view of love and acceptance and looks for it in all the wrong places.

But Jesus cared about this woman enough to have a deep and tough conversation. And his end goal wasn’t to crush and reject her; it was to reveal himself as the solution to her sin, the living water to wash away her sin and quench her thirsty soul. She knew rejection and what it was like to be looked down on. But she had never been loved like that, like only God can love, until she met her Savior, Jesus.

Jesus cares about you enough to come to you in his Word and to meet a deeper thirst that nothing in all the world could ever quench. Jesus quenches our thirst for love and acceptance, not by downplaying sin, but by forgiving it completely. By washing it away in an unending flood of his love and acceptance.

Prayer:
Jesus, meet me beside the waters of your Word so that I may find the kind of love and acceptance that only comes from you. Amen.

Daily Devotions are brought to you by WELS and www.WhatAboutJesus.com.

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 United States License.

All Scripture quotations, unless otherwise indicated, are taken from the Holy Bible, New International Version®, NIV®. Copyright ©1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc. Used by permission of Zondervan. All rights reserved worldwide.

Jacob’s well was there, and Jesus, tired as he was from the journey, sat down by the well. It was about noon. When a Samaritan woman came to draw water, Jesus said to her, “Will you give me a drink?”
John 4:6,7

He knows our thirst.

Daily Devotion – March 14, 2023

Devotion based on John 4:6,7

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Can God truly know what I’m feeling? Is God in tune with what is going on in our world? Maybe at times, we’ve misunderstood God as a distant deity disconnected from the average human’s experience. But Jesus steps into human history, and he shatters that false assumption.

Maybe it seems like a minute detail in the true story told in John chapter 4—Jesus was tired. He asked for a drink of water. Jesus understood being physically tired, worn out, and thirsty because he experienced it all. Even more, he understood being worn out and thirsty on a deeper, spiritual level.

As true God, Jesus knows us intimately. But to prove he’s not a distant God, he became a real man with flesh and blood to experience pain and thirst and even temptation—yet he never sinned. But he still thirsted.

Jesus sat down by a well, thirsty and tired from his journey, and there he encountered a woman thirsty and tired in more ways than one. And God himself asked her for a drink of water. How ordinary and disarming is God’s approach! And in this way, he shows his extraordinary love for every human being.

By the well, Jesus said, “I am thirsty.” On the cross, Jesus said, “I am thirsty.” He was literally thirsty, but on the cross, he suffered the agony of God’s crushing punishment, and it parched his very being. He thirsted for relief from his Father in heaven. He knows what we’re going through, and he did something about it! Jesus’ rest beside the well and visit with that woman was a pitstop along the way to his cross, where he would experience something that he wanted no other human to experience—punishment for sin. From his wounds flowed forgiveness and peace for every thirsting soul.

Prayer:
Lord, thank you for approaching me in gentleness and love and with your almighty power to rescue me from sin’s curse. Amen

Daily Devotions are brought to you by WELS and www.WhatAboutJesus.com.

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 United States License.

All Scripture quotations, unless otherwise indicated, are taken from the Holy Bible, New International Version®, NIV®. Copyright ©1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc. Used by permission of Zondervan. All rights reserved worldwide.

So they quarreled with Moses and said, “Give us water to drink.”
Exodus 17:2

We need water!

Daily Devotion – March 13, 2023

Devotion based on Exodus 17:2

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Have you ever been dying of thirst? We might use that phrase when we are really parched on a hot summer day, but it’s no joke. A hiker ventures out into the desert, not even that far, and if he hasn’t carried enough water, he could literally be dying of thirst.

God’s people, the Israelites, were led out into the desert by God and through Moses, God’s appointed leader. God had just rescued them from brutal slavery in Egypt and was leading them to the Promised Land. But now they had run out of water. Sadly, rather than trusting in God to meet their need, they complained to Moses and God.

God demonstrated his patient love for them. He had Moses strike a rock with his staff, and water flowed! God provided water in the middle of the desert. God quenched their thirst.

God, in his love, quenches thirst. When our physical needs are met, when we have cozy homes, and nourished bodies, when our physical thirst is quenched, it can be easy to stop there and think, “What more could I need.” So many in our world are lost in a desert of sin and unbelief and dying of spiritual thirst—thirst for answers, for acceptance, for purpose. The problem is when we look in the wrong places to have that spiritual thirst quenched—the well runs dry. The danger of spiritual dehydration is eternal death.

God provided literal water for thirsty travelers in a miraculous way. In a miraculous way, God quenches our spiritual thirst through his Word. God may not scratch our every curiosity in life, but he does quench our thirsty souls. Our thirst for answers to life’s big questions, like “What will happen after this life?” He answers this with an empty cross and empty tomb—Jesus died for you and rose for you; heaven is yours! Our thirst for acceptance is quenched by God’s forgiveness and assurance that we are his children. This thirst-quenching, life-giving water doesn’t flow from some rock. It flows from God himself, from Jesus Christ, who is true God.

Prayer:
Lord, when all my physical needs are met by your blessing, even then, lead me beside the life-giving waters of your Word and quench my thirsty soul with your love and forgiveness through Jesus Christ. Amen.

Daily Devotions are brought to you by WELS and www.WhatAboutJesus.com.

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 United States License.

All Scripture quotations, unless otherwise indicated, are taken from the Holy Bible, New International Version®, NIV®. Copyright ©1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc. Used by permission of Zondervan. All rights reserved worldwide.

We have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ.
Romans 5:1

Thankful for Permanent Peace

Daily Devotion – March 12, 2023

Devotion based on Romans 5:1

See series: Devotions

Earthly peace is elusive. Leaders of nations sign treaties to establish foundations on which peaceful relations can be built. Too often, however, treaties are broken, and the peace they sought to establish is lost.

As wonderful as earthly peace is, it is not the kind of peace we need most. We need peace with God, which is something sin took away. Sin brought strife between God and people. This strife is most evident in troubled consciences. It’s also reflected in the conflicts that exist between people everywhere.

To establish earthly peace, the involved parties must often give up something or contribute something. By contrast, there is nothing that we could give up or contribute to establish a peace treaty with God. Our sins alienated us so far from God that such a treaty could never be ratified.

God, however, did what we could not do. Paul wrote in his letter to the Romans: “We have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ.” Through the redemption that came by his own Son, God brought to the peace treaty table everything he needed to sign the treaty with us. Jesus’ blood blotted out our guilt. He arose from the grave to announce God’s peace. Through Jesus, true peace is ours forever! Oh, give thanks to the Lord!

Prayer:
O Jesus, by shedding your precious blood, you bought me back from the eternal destruction I deserved for my sin. Praise and thanks to you, my Savior, for establishing peace between me and God and giving me the gift of everlasting life! Amen.

Daily Devotions are brought to you by WELS and www.WhatAboutJesus.com.

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 United States License.

All Scripture quotations, unless otherwise indicated, are taken from the Holy Bible, New International Version®, NIV®. Copyright ©1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc. Used by permission of Zondervan. All rights reserved worldwide.

It was not through the law that Abraham and his offspring received the promise that he would be heir of the world, but through the righteousness that comes by faith. For if those who live by law are heirs, faith has no value and the promise is worthless, because law brings wrath. And where there is no law there is no transgression. Therefore, the promise comes by faith, so that it may be by grace and may be guaranteed to all Abraham’s offspring—not only to those who are of the law but also to those who are of the faith of Abraham. He is the father of us all.
Romans 4:13-16

Only One Way

Daily Devotion – March 11, 2023

Devotion based on Romans 4:13-16

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“There is more than one way to skin a cat.” The origins of this English saying are uncertain, but the meaning is clear. There is more than one way to achieve an aim. There is more than one approach to solving a problem. There is more than one way to get from A to B. Whatever you are trying to do, there are alternate ways of doing it; if plan A fails, one goes to plan B, and so on.

While this may be true in many earthly endeavors, the apostle Paul makes it clear that it is not true when it comes to heaven and eternal life.

For example, if you could get to heaven following God’s laws, the “more than one way” axiom would be true. One person could choose plan A, another plan B, and so on. However, the law does not bring life; the law brings wrath. That’s because where there is law, there is sin, and where there is sin, there is condemnation. The way of the law as a means of righteousness and eternal life does not and cannot work. That leaves us with only one way.

And what a beautiful way it is! The promise comes by faith. Righteousness comes by faith. These are beautiful words: by grace… guaranteed… to all!

The righteousness that comes by faith in Jesus is the way for all. It is the only way for all.

That is not a limiting truth; it’s a liberating truth. You are free from doubt, worry, and uncertainty concerning your eternal future. You are free to rejoice, worship, serve, and live. Free, through Jesus.

Prayer:
Lord Jesus, you are the Way, the Truth, and the Life. Help me cut off every thought and philosophy that suggests there is another way from me to you, from earth to heaven. May I rejoice in you always! Amen.

Daily Devotions are brought to you by WELS and www.WhatAboutJesus.com.

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 United States License.

All Scripture quotations, unless otherwise indicated, are taken from the Holy Bible, New International Version®, NIV®. Copyright ©1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc. Used by permission of Zondervan. All rights reserved worldwide.

“You are Israel’s teacher,” said Jesus, “and do you not understand these things? Very truly I tell you, we speak of what we know, and we testify to what we have seen, but still you people do not accept our testimony. I have spoken to you of earthly things and you do not believe; how then will you believe if I speak of heavenly things? No one has ever gone into heaven except the one who came from heaven—the Son of Man. Just as Moses lifted up the snake in the wilderness, so the Son of Man must be lifted up, that everyone who believes may have eternal life in him. For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him.”
John 3:10-17

The Need for Understanding

Daily Devotion – March 10, 2023

Devotion based on John 3:10-17

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Nicodemus was a religious leader in Israel and a teacher of the people. He should have understood what was going on when Jesus came, but he did not understand because he did not realize that Jesus came from heaven.

When we realize the basic fact that Jesus is the Son of God from all eternity who came from heaven to earth and became a human being, we begin to understand.

When Jesus was lifted up on a cross, it did not look good. It was hard to understand how anything helpful might be happening. But there was a time when Moses lifted up a statue of a serpent on a pole, and the people who looked at it were saved from death.

Now a similar thing happens. Jesus was lifted up on a cross. His suffering there paid the punishment for our sins. Everyone who looks to him in faith will receive eternal life. It’s tough to understand, but Jesus came from heaven to accomplish and explain it.

We need to understand. God arranged everything because he loved us. Jesus did not come to condemn us because of our lack of understanding. Instead, he came from heaven to save us.

Prayer:
Lord, give me the understanding of your great love and keep me safe all the way to eternal life. Amen.

Daily Devotions are brought to you by WELS and www.WhatAboutJesus.com.

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 United States License.

All Scripture quotations, unless otherwise indicated, are taken from the Holy Bible, New International Version®, NIV®. Copyright ©1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc. Used by permission of Zondervan. All rights reserved worldwide.

Jesus answered, “Very truly I tell you, no one can enter the kingdom of God unless they are born of water and the Spirit. Flesh gives birth to flesh, but the Spirit gives birth to spirit.”
John 3:5,6

The Need for Baptism

Daily Devotion – March 9, 2023

Devotion based on John 3:5,6

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The man talking to Jesus was confused. How do you enter the kingdom of God?

Jesus explained that people enter the kingdom of God when they are baptized. Baptism is not just plain water but water used by God’s command and connected with God’s Word, which is how the Holy Spirit does his work. Because baptism is like starting over in life, Jesus compares it to being born. Jesus was telling the man that he needed to be baptized.

You need to be baptized too. Baptism gives you forgiveness for your sins, and you need forgiveness.

You need to be baptized. Baptism makes you holy, cleansing you by the washing with water through the word. Without holiness you cannot enter heaven, where everything is holy.

You need to be baptized. Baptism clothes you with Christ. When you are wearing the spiritual clothes of Christ, the only man who has ever lived a holy life, you appear holy in the eyes of God the Father, and he welcomes you into his kingdom.

You need to be baptized. Baptism makes you a child of God, a member of his family. With baptism you can call God your Father, and you can depend on his Son, Jesus Christ, your brother.

You need to be baptized. Baptism connects you to the death of Jesus, and that payment for your sins on the cross is exactly what you need to go through death and enter eternal life in heaven.

You need to be baptized. Baptism saves you, not because it removes dirt from your body, but because it connects you to the resurrection of Jesus Christ and gives you a clear conscience.

You need to be baptized!

Prayer:
Let me always, Lord, remember that the water and the Word bear your never-failing promise: my salvation is assured. Amen.

Daily Devotions are brought to you by WELS and www.WhatAboutJesus.com.

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 United States License.

All Scripture quotations, unless otherwise indicated, are taken from the Holy Bible, New International Version®, NIV®. Copyright ©1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc. Used by permission of Zondervan. All rights reserved worldwide.