If You Only Knew...

Every once in a while God will take a familiar verse and make it completely new to me again. He did that for me this week.

“Jesus replied, If you only knew the gift God has for you…” John 4:10

If you only knew…if you only knew…if you only knew…Oh Can't you hear God's heart cry in that? If you only knew how much I love you. If you only knew how much I desire to bless you. If you only knew, my beloved, you would come to me, you would ask me, and I would give you life. Real life. Abundant life. All the Spiritual blessings of God. All of Me. Living Water. (my paraphrase)

As I read John 4:10, I was reminded of the prophet Jeremiah. Here are some things that I have come to understand about Jeremiah.

· He spoke, but no one listened.
· Even though the people did not listen, Jeremiah remained faithful and obedient to God.
· Jeremiah felt firsthand God’s love for his people and the people’s rejection of that love.
· They called him the “weeping prophet”

He wept because the people had rejected their God. The God who had made them, loved them, and sought repeatedly to bless them. His heart was broken with the things that break God’s heart. Oh...If they only knew…

“My wayward children,” says the Lord, “come back to me, and I will heal your wayward hearts. “ Jeremiah 3:22

“Plow up the hard ground of you hearts!” “surrender your pride and power. Change your hearts before the Lord.” Jeremiah 4:3,4

“My heart, my heart – I writhe in pain! My heart pounds within me! I cannot be still.” Jeremiah 4:19

Jeremiah wept because He knew the love that God had for his people, and he knew how God desired to bless his people, and yet the people continually rejected that love. Why?

Why did they? Why do we? If you know someone loves you, and desires to bless you why would you run from that?

Why do we sleep in instead of getting up and spending time with Him?

Why do we gorge ourselves with food, instead of fasting and saying, “today Lord, I’m giving up food because I hunger and thirst for you. I want you more than food.”

Jesus replied, “if you only knew the gift God has for you (pause)and who you are speaking to (when we pray we are speaking to Jesus) you would ask me, and I would give you living water.”

Dear Jesus, help us to grasp that. Help us to grasp You. Help us to know and understand how much you love us. How much you desire us. I pray for myself and those who read this, that we will have an unquenchable desire to know you more, to be with you, to spend time in Your presence.