John 4:17-18: “You are right when you say that you have no husband…What you have said is quite true.”

Jesus, You know when we are being honest with ourselves or if we are pushing down and ignoring the awareness of our true condition.  You know us inside and out so it is complete foolishness to act as though we can hide sin from You. It is folly to believe that if we don’t talk about a problem or if we pretend that it’s not there that it will fade away gradually.

Lord, when you met this Samaritan woman, You called out her condition which seems unloving. However, You made a special trip to meet her at the well in order to save her.  So calling out her spiritual and emotional condition wasn’t unloving at all.  There was no way to move her out of her condition without calling it out.

Jesus, I know that the conditions of my heart that I push down and try to ignore are the ones that humiliate  and scare me. I am so disappointed in myself and ashamed of these that I want to leave them alone.  I don’t know how to deal with them.  I know I can’t deal with them alone. And honestly, sometimes I fear that there’s no hope for me – that I can never change.

Father God, please forgive me for reducing the power of the cross and of the blood of Jesus to only being able to cleanse small sins.  Forgive me for acting as though “once for all” (Heb. 9:12, 10:2, 10:10) doesn’t apply to me and my problems. There is more power than I need in the Word, the name of Jesus and the blood.  Help me to aggressively focus on one area, call it out, and go after it with the Word. Thank You for Your patience with me and Your compassion on my weakness!

Psalm 119:9-11

How can a young man keep his way pure?

By living according to Your Word.

I seek You with all my heart; do not let me stray from Your commands.

I have hidden Your Word in my heart that I might not sin against you.

Now you:

• Do you struggle with feelings of helplessness over an area in your life where you haven’t seen victory yet?
• Do you tend to feel as though God must be really frustrated with you by now? Do you get concerned that if you haven’t changed in a certain area that you might be the hopeless case?

We all have areas in our lives that are harder than others to gain victory in. But our degree of change in a certain area is not the reflection of how much grace God is pouring out on us or on how much love and acceptance He feels for us. Our victories over shortcomings and sin do not earn more favor with God or increase His devotion toward us.  He loves us unconditionally, which means that we can’t increase or decrease that love with good or bad versions of ourselves. And He loves us counter-conditionally, which means He loves us in opposition to what we are at the moment because He sees us as righteous in Christ.

But the fact that God loves us means that He is going to go after things in our lives that are hurting us or tearing us down.  And sometimes when that happens to us, it feels personal.  We have become so good at putting our best face forward for everyone around us that having our unlovely side exposed makes us feel scared and ashamed. It’s hard to wrap our brains around the fact that God’s method of bringing our flaws and sins to the surface brings healing and freedom.

But God is not like us.  He doesn’t bring anything to the surface that He is not ready and able to heal and deliver us from.  He has all the power we need to break every chain and overcome every hindrance.   His sacrifice of Jesus on the cross was “once for all”.  That means that the justice requirement for ALL sin has been met for ALL people, for ALL eternity.  This sacrifice doesn’t get weaker as the centuries pass by.  And our sin doesn’t get more powerful either.  All sin has been dealt with.  Therefore, since judgment for our sin has been satisfied, all that’s left is LOVE.

So let’s rejoice today that no matter what kind of mess we think we are, we’re not too big of mess for God to fix!