Thursday, February 26, 2026

Opening Scripture

“Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, the new creation has come: The old has gone, the new is here! All this is from God, who reconciled us to himself through Christ and gave us the ministry of reconciliation: that God was reconciling the world to himself in Christ, not counting people’s sins against them. And he has committed to us the message of reconciliation. We are therefore Christ’s ambassadors, as though God were making his appeal through us. We implore you on Christ’s behalf: Be reconciled to God. God made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.”  2 Corinthians 5:17-21

Opening Prayer

Gracious Father, as we continue in this season of spiritual reflection and personal examination, in consideration of your Son’s death and resurrection, open our hearts and minds to your unending love and transforming power. Stir my heart’s devotion to the Lord Jesus. Prompt my mind’s submission to the Spirit’s leading. Help me to desire your presence above all things. May your loving kindness flow over me and through me to those I encounter. In Jesus’ name I pray. Amen.

Daily Bible Reading

John 4:15-26

The woman said to him, “Sir, give me this water so that I won’t get thirsty and have to keep coming here to draw water.” He told her, “Go, call your husband and come back.” “I have no husband,” she replied.

Jesus said to her, “You are right when you say you have no husband. The fact is, you have had five husbands, and the man you now have is not your husband. What you have just said is quite true.”

“Sir,” the woman said, “I can see that you are a prophet. Our ancestors worshiped on this mountain, but you Jews claim that the place where we must worship is in Jerusalem.”

“Woman,” Jesus replied, “believe me, a time is coming when you will worship the Father neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem. You Samaritans worship what you do not know; we worship what we do know, for salvation is from the Jews. Yet a time is coming and has now come when the true worshipers will worship the Father in the Spirit and in truth, for they are the kind of worshipers the Father seeks. God is spirit, and his worshipers must worship in the Spirit and in truth.”

The woman said, “I know that Messiah” (called Christ) “is coming. When he comes, he will explain everything to us.”

Then Jesus declared, “I, the one speaking to you—I am he.”

Reflection  

This interaction with the Samaritan woman is the longest recorded conversation between Jesus and anyone in Scripture, yet we’re never given her name. However, the depth and intensity of their engagement is undeniable.

When Jesus shifted the focus from physical water to “living water,” the woman struggled to keep up. To her credit, that’s true of everyone. “The person without the Spirit does not accept the things that come from the Spirit of God but considers them foolishness, and cannot understand them because they are discerned only through the Spirit” (1 Corinthians 2:14).

Since the woman was not yet able to grasp what He was saying, Jesus addressed her foundational problem. He suggested that she go and get her husband. In an instant, the whole encounter was transformed.

With just a few words, Jesus exposed her life of sin and need for salvation. Her reputation was not only known to the town, but to this stranger as well. Therefore, He must not just be a Rabbi, but a prophet of God.

Rather than confessing and repenting of her immoral life, she threw up a smoke screen. (Of course, we would never do that.) Let this man of God explain an ancient religious disagreement instead of reminding me of my shame! In love, Jesus is firm.

He briefly corrects her misunderstanding about Messianic prophecy, then foreshadows what is about to happen. “A time is coming” refers to Jesus’ approaching death and resurrection. After that, the Holy Spirit will indwell God’s people. Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved and become a “temple” of God through faith in Jesus.

Although the Samaritans had a somewhat different expectation of the coming Messiah, the woman began to understand what Jesus was saying. Eventually, the Christ would explain everything and make it all right.

And in that moment, Jesus revealed his identity as the promised Messiah.

Flourishing Habit

Meaning and Purpose

How like Jesus to declare his Messiahship for the first time to a sinful, marginalized woman in a rural town. He wasn’t standing before the powerful religious leaders at a festival in Jerusalem. He was sitting alone with a powerless, downtrodden soul at a well in the heat of the day.

Jesus is always more interested in where you’re going than where you’ve been.

That’s the essence of His self-proclamation in Luke 4:18 (quoting Isaiah 61) … “The Spirit of the Lord is on me, because he has anointed me to proclaim good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim freedom for the prisoners and recovery of sight for the blind, to set the oppressed free.”

And God has entrusted to us this ministry of reconciliation.

How can you live out that assignment today?

Remember: Nothing changes until something changes!