The Lord’s Day
O God,
On the one hand, we want to know you; on the other hand, we shudder at the prospect of knowing you.
We want to know you because we are made to know you and because down deep in our hearts we know that we must know you if we are to be fully ourselves. But we shudder at the prospect of knowing you because you are a holy God and we are so flawed and frail and broken.
The gain, though, is well worth the risk. Thank you for making yourself known to us in all of the ways that you in your grace have chosen to make yourself known to us, but especially in your Son Jesus Christ and through your Spirit. Show us how to keep our lives open to you so that we can grow in our knowledge of you.
On the one hand, we want to be known by you; on the other hand, we shudder at the prospect of being known by you.
We want to be known by you because we need someone to know us as we truly are, to accept us as we truly are, and to love us as we truly are. We shudder at the prospect of being known by you because we know ourselves so well and dread the vulnerability that comes with being known fully by someone else.
Help us to remember that you know us fully whether or not we want you to know us. Help us to accept that reality and to live in light of it; help us to keep our lives open to the ways that you can help us to understand ourselves and that you can help us to be the best version of ourselves that we can possibly be.
We praise you, O God, because you know us and because you let us know you.
We praise you that in your grace you choose to have the fullest possible relationship with us that we are willing to let happen. Help us always to be conscious of just how badly we really do want it …
Amen.
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