Day 8 – One sows, another reaps

John 4:27-42

Just then, his disciples came. They were amazed that he was speaking with a woman; yet no one said, “What are you looking for?” or, “Why do you speak with her?” So the woman left her water pot, went away into the city, and said to the people, “Come, see a man who has told me everything I’ve ever done. Can this be the Christ?” They went out of the city, and came to him.

Meanwhile, the disciples urged him, “Rabbi, eat.”

But he said to them, “I have food to eat that you don’t know about.”

So the disciples said to one another, “Has anyone brought him something to eat?”

Jesus said to them, “My food is to do the will of him who sent me and to finish his work. Don’t you say, ‘There are still four months until the harvest?’ Look, I tell you, lift up your eyes and look at the fields, they are white for harvest already. Whoever reaps receives wages and gathers fruit for eternal life, so that the sower and the reaper may rejoice together. For in this the saying is true, ‘One sows, and another reaps.’ I sent you to reap what you haven’t worked for. Others have worked, and you have reaped the results of their work.”

Many of the Samaritans from that city believed in him because of the word of the woman, who testified, “He told me everything I’ve ever done.” So when the Samaritans came to Jesus, they begged him to stay with them. He stayed there two days. Many more believed because of his word. They said to the woman, “Now we believe, not just because of what you said; for we have heard for ourselves, and know that this is indeed the Christ, the Saviour of the world.”

For reflection

How much are you trying to get done by your own initiative at the moment? How much could God be guiding you to be part of something bigger than you can do alone?