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A Prayer About Being Completely Known

“Come, see a man who told me everything I ever did. Could this be the Christ?” John 4:29

     Jesus, it would’ve been a holy joy to have been present when this Samaritan woman reenacted her collision with the gospel (John 4:1-42). Though she’d been on a mission to get water from Jacob’s well, you gave her living water—the only water that slakes our death-doling thirst. You’re such a welcoming and generous Savior.

     You exposed her sequential affairs… yet instead of crushing her, you cherished her. En route to the nations, you brought the gospel of the kingdom to the dark continent of her heart. As she stood in the public square of her community telling her broken story, she was never so free. Because of your grace, she didn’t have to pose or pretend any longer.

     Likewise, nothing but the gospel can give a man like me the freedom to be thoroughly known.  Indeed, Jesus, you are the Christ—the Messiah… the heart-knower… my complete forgiveness… my righteousness from God… my only hope of glory.

     You know every vain, foolish and evil thought I’ve ever conceived… every lustful, greedy fantasy in which I’ve engaged. You know my unrighteousness and my self-righteousness. You know my broken-cisterns of choice… my “empty-nothings”… my idols… my many attempts to find life somewhere else than in you… and you continue to love, change and free me.

     As I enjoy your presence this morning, Jesus, the words of my spiritual father are wooing me afresh… “Cheer up! You’re a whole lot more broken, needy and desperate than you think you are. Cheer up! You’re a whole lot more welcome, accepted and loved than you ever hoped or imagined. Both are true because the gospel is true!”

     Only this gospel can change us, and is changing me. What a wonderful, merciful Savior you are, Jesus… so very Amen, I pray in your transcendent and transforming name.

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