“Jesus said to them, “My food is to do the will of him who sent me and to accomplish his work. Do not say there are yet four months then comes the harvest. Look I tell you, lift up your eyes and see that the fields are white for harvest.”
– John 4:34–35
John 4:34–35 come at the end of Jesus’ conversation with a Samaritan woman at the well in John 4 and the disciples come out, she goes back into town to talk about who she has met. Jesus is having this conversation with the disciples. They’re saying, “Hey, you haven’t eaten.” He says, “Oh, I’ve eaten. I have much better food than you’ve eaten. My food is to do the will of him who sent me, to finish his work. Basically what sustains me is obeying the father, accomplishing his will, doing the mission he sent me to do, here in John 4 to bring living water to a woman at the well.” Then he says, “Open your eyes and look. There’s so much work to do. There are so many people,” the harvest language here, “Who are in need of the grace and mercy of God, the living water that Jesus has come to offer.” So Jesus says, “This is food. This is sustenance. Giving your life, making this living water known to those who are thirsty.”
The fields are white for harvest. Let us pray to the end that by God’s grace we will take living water to the thirsty.
This Verse Wants Us To Spread The Gospel To Others
They’re ready to hear it. Open your eyes and look, don’t say later, the fields are ripe for harvest and oh, I pray for this perspective in my life, in each of our lives, that we would have open eyes, that we would realize all around us there are people in need of living water. There are people in need of salvation in Christ all around us right now today. We will be surrounded by people, all of us, in different parts of the world where we live and we work and we carry on with life, there are people around us who are in need of the grace of Christ, so God, help us to open our eyes and see that they are white for harvest, that they’re ready to hear.
Certainly, not everybody is gonna respond favorably when we share the Gospel but help us to believe that when we share, many are ready to hear, they want what you alone can offer. You’ve wired their souls to want you, to need you, to need grace from you. Jesus, you’ve made that grace possible through your death on the cross. You’ve made living water eternal satisfaction possible in God, so God, we pray.
John 4:34–35 Asks For Help To Spread The Word Of God
Just like we were surrounded in a desert by people and we have water and we would with urgency say, “Our work is to get this water to as many people as possible. God, help us to live that way. Help us to live today, this week, that way. Help us to live our lives with that kind of urgency for the harvest fields around us and God, just like you worked in that Samaritan woman at the well, we pray that you would work in many hearts, many, many hearts through our lives, that you would draw many hearts to know the life, eternal life, satisfaction, rivers of living water that are found in you. God, may many people … Even today, we pray that people today would drink from that water as a result of our lives living with urgency for the spread of your grace. God, may it be so we pray. May that be our food today. In Jesus’ name we pray. Amen.
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David Platt serves as a pastor in metro Washington, D.C. He is the founder of Radical.
David received his Ph.D. from New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary and is the author of Don’t Hold Back, Radical, Follow Me, Counter Culture, Something Needs to Change, Before You Vote, as well as the multiple volumes of the Christ-Centered Exposition Commentary series.
Along with his wife and children, he lives in the Washington, D.C. metro area.
