A Prayer about Grace Allergies

There came a woman of Samaria to draw water. Jesus said to her, “Give me a drink.” (For his disciples had gone away into the city to buy food.) The Samaritan woman said to him, “How is it that you, a Jew, ask for a drink from me, a woman of Samaria?” (For Jews have no dealings with Samaritans.) Jesus answered her, “If you knew the gift of God, and who it is that is saying to you, ‘Give me a drink,’ you would have asked him, and he would have given you living water.” (John 4:7–10)

Well we are through another week and I trust you have been blessed as we have journeyed together through the ministry of Freedom Fighters.

Our prayer for this Friday was penned by Pastor Scotty Smith – a man who yearns to pray “gospel-centered” prayers:

Dear Lord Jesus,

you spoke these inviting words of hope to a broken woman trying her very best to keep her distance from you. She’d been on a quest to find life in the arms of men—many men—and it obviously wasn’t working for her very well. The more she tried to evade your gaze, the more you simply applied your grace. She ran; you pursued. She danced around; you stopped the music.

How I praise you that you came to seek and save the lost, not just broadcast an offer from the distance. Though the details of my story are different from this nameless Samaritan woman’s, the same foolish strategy is there: playing games with you, like hide-and-seek, only I do all the hiding and you do all the seeking.

I wish this were just true of me a long, long time ago, but I still default to this insanity. Jesus, deliver us from grace allergies—living with an aversion to the gospel. Why we choose broken cisterns, dumb idols, and self-help over your love is sheer madness. Grace is for sinners, not for pretenders, posers, and performers.

You mean to heal us, not harm us; embrace us, not embarrass us; succor us with compassion, not shame us with contempt. So, Jesus, once again I bring real thirst to you today. I bring my penchant to avoid you. I bring my allergic reactions to the gospel. I bring my excuse making, my unbelief, my pride, my self-righteousness. I bring that part of me that would rather help others discover your grace than partake of it for myself.

I ask you for a fresh imbibing of living water, sufficient for the needs of my heart and the demands of this day. May this be a twenty-four-hour period in which I spontaneously join the chorus of many others who are singing, “Come see the man who told me everything I ever did, and he still loves me and is bent on my freedom. Certainly this is the Messiah, the Savior, the Lord. . . . He is Jesus!”

I pray in your pursuing and all-satisfying name. Amen.

Smith, Scotty (2011-09-01). Everyday Prayers for a Transformed Life: 365 Days to Gospel-Centered Faith (Kindle Locations 7080-7102). Baker Book Group. Kindle Edition.

I pray that you will have a blessed weekend. Thanks for sharing your time with me. – Bill Welte is President & CEO of America’s Keswick

Team YOU: Isaiah 50-51; Proverbs 12; Colossians 4

Motivations: The Holy Spirit never browbeats us. He always persuades. Martyn Lloyd-Jones

Practice to Remember: Level 1:James 1:17; Level 2: James 1:19-27

Powered Up:  God allows the prayers of the saints, those who have entered into an understanding of His mind and purpose, to be brought to Him. Oswald Chambers