“Love Without Limits”
By Rev. Everett R. Kimble, Sr.
Our “Minute With the Master” this morning is for anyone who has ever struggled with self-worth. Today is for those who have lived through things ordinary people should never have had to go through. You have endured what most people would never like to dream of because they would find it too horrifying. You have done a whole lot of stuff you believe has put you in a place where you could never be forgiven. So, you put on a happy face keeping it all bottled up inside all the while trying to make it appear that you are living the life you really don’t believe that you are worthy to live. You have retreated into your own little darkness with this idea that no one knows who you really are3.
Let me remind you while I encourage you this morning that there is nothing Jesus does not already know about you, and that stuff that you are ashamed of, is the same stuff that He died to release you from. He knows all about you and He loves you, still.
The 4th chapter of the Gospel of John gives us a glimpse into the life of a woman caught in a cycle of brokenness because she did not understand how to break free. She was in Samaria feeling like an outcast and living with the shame of seven broken and sinful relationships. But help was on the way. Jesus, headed to Galilee felt the need to go through Samaria and as divine intervention would have it, He made a pit stop at the right place, at the right time. This woman needed a breakthrough, and Jesus was and still is in the breakthrough business.
After a quick visit with her at the well where they met, Jesus begins to tell her everything about herself especially the things she though was hidden. She had come to the well for water but it wasn’t long before she realized that the thing that she had really been thirsty for all along was right there in front of her. And when she received it a funny thing happened, her shame began to fade. John 4:28-29 records it like this;
“The women left her water jar beside the well and ran back into the village, telling everyone. Come see a Man who told me everything I ever did! Could he possibly be the Messiah?”
Jesus knew everything about her and yet He went out of His way to save her.
Jesus knows exactly who we are and despite all of that He died to set us free.
“But God commended His love towards us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us” (Romans 5:8, KJV).
God loves you and there is absolutely nothing you can do to change it. Have a Loving and Spirit filled Friday!
