A Prayer about the Freedom of Being Completely Known
Come, see a man who told me everything I ever did. Could this be the Messiah? (John 4:29 NIV)
Jesus, I wish I could have been present to watch this stunned Samaritan woman re- count the tale of her collision with the gospel— her story of meeting you and com- ing alive to the transforming power of grace (John 4:1–42). Water from Jacob’s well was superseded by the water you alone can give, the living water that slakes our death-doling thirst.
You exposed to her the sinfulness of her sequential affairs, yet instead of ridiculing her, you redeemed her; instead of condemning her, you cherished her; in- stead of shaming her, you saved her.
En route to the nations, you brought the gospel of the kingdom to the dark continent of her heart. As she stood so vulnerable in the public square of her community, she’d never been so free. No more need to pose or pretend. I wonder if some of the six men with whom she’d been heard her proclaim, “Come, see a man who told me everything I ever did. Could this be the Messiah?” (John 4:29 NIV).
Nothing but the gospel can free us for being thoroughly known without fear. Jesus, your love is unlike anything else we can experience in this life. In fact, your love is better than life itself. We adore and praise you this day as the Christ—the Messiah, our Lenten Lord, the heart knower, our holy lover, our righteousness from God, our only hope of glory!
You know every vain, foolish, and evil thought we’ve ever conceived; every lustful, greedy fantasy in which we’ve engaged. Only you hear every grace-robbing, grandstanding, gossipy word we speak. Only you know the broken cisterns of our choices— our idols, the many things to which we turn to find life somewhere else than in you. Yet you pursue us, welcome us, and love us, and you are changing us.
What a wonderful, merciful Savior you are, Jesus. Life, temporal and eternal, can only be found in you. We joyfully pray in your transcendent and transforming name.
Amen.