Last week, I started to get anxious. 

One of the things I have been worrying about is money. 

How will we afford [school, food, birthdays etc.]

God is good. And He always knows where you are and what you need. So, last week, God decided to make me laugh.

It started with a food shop. I’d ordered the usual – 7 evening meals and all the essentials for lunch and breakfast – bread, milk included.

My shop turned up and I had two loaves of bread – one gluten-free for me and one gluten-full, for the rest of my family.

That’s when the multiplication began.

• The next day I had two gluten-free loaves of bread and one gluten-full.

• The day after I found another two gluten-free ciabattas that had been given to me.

• The day after that I received a packet of gluten-free bread rolls.

My kitchen isn’t big, so with all this bread on the worktop, I looked like I was about to begin a small sandwich shop! 

Needless to say I had more than what I needed.

And in my spirit I heard a familiar voice that I can never ignore: “I said I’d provide the daily bread.”

I recognised God’s loving humor a mile-off! He’s done things like this before, where He just makes His voice clear to me in such a bizarre way!

Even so, I didn’t really take what He said to heart.

In fact, I let those money-worries grow a little larger. Until I reached a point of overwhelm.

In my overwhelmed state, I was reminded of a popular bible story: The one where Jesus talks to a Samaritan woman by a well.

This Samaritan woman is drawing water from a well, when she is approached by Jesus. 

Jesus asks her to give Him a drink.

The woman was shocked. Not only was she a woman, but she was a Samaritan. People of Jewish heritage, like Jesus, did not typically associate themselves with Samaritans. 

Jesus tells this woman that if she knew Him she would ask Him for living water! 

Can you imagine how confused this woman must have been?

Jesus says:

“Everyone who drinks this water will be thirsty again, but whoever drinks the water I give them will never thirst. Indeed, the water I give them will become in them a spring of water welling up to eternal life.”

The woman said to him, “Sir, give me this water so that I won’t get thirsty and have to keep coming here to draw water.”

He told her, “Go, call your husband and come back.”

“I have no husband,” she replied.

Jesus said to her, “You are right when you say you have no husband. The fact is, you have had five husbands, and the man you now have is not your husband. What you have just said is quite true.”

John 4: 13 – 18, NIV.

This woman talks about physical thirst, but Jesus knows that deep-down she is spiritually thirsty. She is crying out for something to satisfy her soul. 

And so Jesus, in His grace, calls her out on her sin. He tells her that knows exactly where she is.

Jesus reveals that He knows the woman behind the mask she portrays.

He knows more than what she tells her friends. 

Actually: He knows her more than she knows herself!

And that is where her freedom begins.

This is really what I want to tell you this week: He knows exactly where you are. He knows what you are going through. He knows your sin. He knows how much is in your bank account. He knows your worries and fears.

God knows how many hairs are on your head! He knows what you dreamt about last night and what you ate yesterday.

Even so, He offers you a drink.

He offers you forgiveness. A relationship with Him that is eternal. One that won’t fizzle out when you mess up but one that will heal and restore your soul. 

A relationship with the one that knows exactly where you are at and will not leave you there.

For me, I’ve been trying to stay full of faith.

Faith for finances. Faith for the future, whatever it looks like.

But, to be honest with you,I don’t feel like I have a great deal of faith! 

Just last week I was praying for another friend’s finances and I knew that God was going to provide for her. Like I knew it in my heart, as I was praying.

And God caused me to see: I have faith for others, but not for my own circumstances.

Why is that?

Probably because of shame. Shame when I spend on things that people don’t need – Coffees, chocolate, a gross, overpriced, non-alcoholic drink in a bar!

I feel like I won’t be blessed because really I am spending what I do have without 100% wisdom and 100% control.

But here is Jesus: He knows where I am at, just like He knew that woman was having affairs with several men. Did He push her away and condemn her? No!

He offered her life. Life that began in 100% integrity and honesty with Him. Not life that required 100% perfection.

Today, I am able to tell Jesus that I don’t have the foggiest what is going to happen. I don’t really feel like I have a lot of faith that the obstacles in front of me will shift.

I don’t know what the future holds… and what I do know about the future freaks me out!

I can tell Jesus this stuff and I can let Him give me a drink. I can let Him give me another loaf of bread to chew on too! Because He is the one that wants to be with me, where I am at. 

He is also the one who provides for the people He loves. That’s His character, regardless of what I have done.

He doesn’t need me to be perfect; He does need me to be honest.

In the bible, there is another story in which a man’s son needs healing. The man says to Jesus:

“Help me overcome my unbelief!”

Mark 9: 24, NIV.

He wants to see his son healed but he is honest about the unbelief in His heart. 

Jesus sees his honesty and loves this man. His son is healed.

If we look back at our Samaritan woman: after she meets with Jesus she is filled, spiritually. 

The bible says:

Then, leaving her water jar, the woman went back to the town and said to the people, “Come, see a man who told me everything I ever did. Could this be the Messiah?” They came out of the town and made their way toward him.

John 4: 28 – 30, NIV.

Did you catch that? She left her water jar by the well! 

She went for water to quench her physical thirst and she met with Jesus, who instead filled her soul to overflow.

She met with the one who showed her what it is like to be fully known and yet fully accepted.

That’s all we need.

I don’t know where you are today and what you think you need. But I know that relationship with Jesus will heal you in ways you didn’t know you needed healing!

And so my question today is this: Are you being honest with Jesus?

Are you letting your guard down and telling Him the whole truth?

Or are you trying to perform? Trying to put on a brave front?

Are you picking up worry and holding onto it? 

Jesus wants to give you what you don’t deserve. He wants to fill you to overflow and heal you, completely.

It starts with you coming to Him in your mess, just as you are. 

I encourage you to do that today.