屬靈的事奉，最奇妙的特性之一，就是它能使投身其中的人煥發更新。就拿主耶穌在敘加井旁的經歷作例子。祂在雅各井旁，像撒瑪利亞婦人要水喝，那時祂真的是又饑又渴。然而祂對這個罪人之關切，使祂暫時忘卻自己的需要，祂顧不得口乾舌燥，而與她深入長談，透過這段談話，祂把生命之水傾注到她乾渴的靈魂中。不久門徒返回，看到主耶穌精神爽朗的樣子，十分驚訝，私下彼此對問說，莫非有人拿甚麼東西給祂吃了麼？當然，真正的秘訣乃在於主將生命之水次給那撒瑪利亞婦人喝之後，祂自己的乾渴也得著滿足了。靈裏的生命及靈裏的事奉，常常都是這個樣子。
"My meat is to do the will of Him that sent Me, and to accomplish His work." - John 4:34
A wonderful feature of spiritual ministry is that it refreshes the one who engages in it. Take, for example, the incident of Jesus at the well of Sychar. He was genuinely thirsty when He asked the woman for a drink, but in His concern for her as a needy sinner He ignored His own condition. Instead He engaged her in a conversation that ministered the water of life to her soul.
Then the disciples returned. To their surprise, the Lord looked so refreshed that they began to ask one another where this provision had come from. The answer was, of course, that in giving another to drink of the living water, He Himself had found His own thirst satisfied. Life in the Spirit and ministry in the Spirit are always like this.
The Joyful Heart (by Watchman Nee)
Read the Scriptures: John 4:1-34
