LifeLink Devotional

Tuesday, July 7, 2020

 When I was a little boy, I really believed my mother had eyes in the back of her head. I even asked her to let me look under her hair to find them. I knew they had to be there because of how often she knew exactly what I was doing even when I didn’t think she could see me. When I discovered she didn’t really have eyes under her hair, I thought I was free to do whatever I wanted when she wasn’t around. It was then that she taught me an important lesson about God: He sees all and knows all, all the time.

John 4:16-18  Jesus said to her, “Go, call your husband, and come here.” The woman answered him, “I have no husband.” Jesus said to her, “You are right in saying, ‘I have no husband’; for you have had five husbands, and the one you now have is not your husband. What you have said is true.”

I am very convicted about the contradictions that exist in my life between what I say I believe and what I do. I am often like the woman at the well who tried to cover up the truth. For whatever reason, when confronted with the truth of who she was and what she was doing, she diverted the conversation to a safer context. Could it have been out of shame? Probably. Could it have been to maintain an appropriate appearance? It’s likely. Could it have been out of fear of standing in the presence of holiness? Absolutely.

Those are some of the same reasons I try to cover up the truth of who I am and what I have done. What possesses us to cover what God already knows? What level of pride exists in us that we can declare the Omniscience (all-knowing nature) of God and yet live in fear of acknowledging the complete transparency that already exists in our relationship? Why are we not willing to admit the hypocrisy of trying to maintain appearances before God?

Tough questions that need honest answers. The humility required to honestly see ourselves the way God sees us opens the floodgates of grace. That’s what the woman at the well was about to experience. She was about to move from spiritual performance to unconditional acceptance. That’s the same move we all need to make, but it requires honest confession of every weakness, every flaw, every choice, and every sin.  God already knows them all. We may be suffering from unbelief that He will accept us if we admit them all. That’s where the move to fullness of grace begins, in seeing ourselves the way God already sees us.

Take some time today to consider becoming honest before God, and open your heart to be overwhelmed with His grace.

Pastor John