Lessons from a child: Love the One In Front Of you

A young girl was walking along a beach upon which thousands of starfish had been washed up during a terrible storm. When she came to each starfish, she would pick it up, and throw it back into the ocean. 

She had been doing this for some time when a man approached her and said, “Little girl, why are you doing this? Look at this beach! You can’t save all these starfish. You can’t begin to make a difference!”

The girl seemed crushed and suddenly deflated. After a few moments, she bent back down and picked up another starfish. Then she hurled it as far as she could into the ocean. 
With joy-filled eyes, she looked back at the man and replied, “Well, I made a difference for that one!”
The old man looked at the girl inquisitively and thought about what she had said. Inspired, he joined the little girl in throwing starfish back into the sea. Soon others joined, and all the starfish were saved. ” - adapted from The Star Thrower by Loren Eisley

I love this story because it reveals God’s recipe for changing the world. God could have stayed far away in the glory of heaven, but He chose to come down and walk along the dried-out beaches of humanity. Jesus went out of His way to visit the sick, outcast, and alone in their suffering. He wanted to walk along the places they had washed ashore and get them to the water of His presence. 
Jesus slowed down, scanned the crowds, and looked for the thirsty and dryest among them.  Jesus was compelled by a genuine love for the individuals that blur together in the busyness of human life. 

First, His love touched one person, but it often started a chain of events, and the domino of their encounter spread His love through many more lives. 

When He loved the woman at the well, she shared her encounter with others. When Jesus loved Zacchaeus, he invited friends to join them for dinner. When He loved His disciples, they invested their lives in paying it forward. 

This is how God’s Kingdom advances—one heart-to-heart encounter at a time. 
All it takes is for each of us to follow Jesus, slow down, and let Him lead us to love the one in front of us and help them find their way to the Living Water of His presence. 

📖 John 4:7-15
A woman from Samaria came to draw water. Jesus said to her, “Give me a drink.” (For his disciples had gone away into the city to buy food.) The Samaritan woman said to him, “How is it that you, a Jew, ask for a drink from me, a woman of Samaria?” (For Jews have no dealings with Samaritans.) Jesus answered her, “If you knew the gift of God, and who it is that is saying to you, ‘Give me a drink,’ you would have asked him, and he would have given you living water.” The woman said to him, “Sir, you have nothing to draw water with, and the well is deep. Where do you get that living water? Are you greater than our father Jacob? He gave us the well and drank from it himself, as did his sons and his livestock.” Jesus said to her, “Everyone who drinks of this water will be thirsty again, but whoever drinks of the water that I will give him will never be thirsty again. The water that I will give him will become in him a spring of water welling up to eternal life.” The woman said to him, “Sir, give me this water, so that I will not be thirsty or have to come here to draw water.”
📖 John 4:28-30
So the woman left her water jar and went away into town and said to the people, “Come, see a man who told me all that I ever did. Can this be the Christ?” They went out of the town and were coming to him.
Luke 19:10
For the Son of Man came to seek and save those who are lost.”

🙏🏼  Pause and pray. God wants you to be a difference-maker in someone’s life today. Spend time with Jesus at the well of His Spirit. Ask Him for a drink; let Him quench your thirst. Then pray for Him to guide you to one person today who needs a drink from the well of His love. 

If you're in the Austin, Round Rock, Georgetown, Cedar Park, Leander, and Hutto areas come join us at the Beat Church. A There's room for you to partner with us in loving God, loving people, and living like we mean it.

Drop a comment below and share what the Holy Spirit is stirring in your heart from today’s devotional. 💬👇

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