Knowing You

Psalm 1:6 “For the LORD knows the way of the righteous, But the way of the ungodly shall perish.”

If I was to ask someone about a person they knew, the assumption I’m making is that they have or had a relationship with them. If someone asked me if I knew Queen Elizabeth, I would have to say I knew of her but I don’t know her personally, I’ve never met her.

If I asked you if you knew Jesus, what would you say?

Do you know Him personally as your Lord and Savior, do you walk with Him daily in prayer and trust, have you given your life and future into His hands for safe keeping, does His Spirit dwell within you?—-Or do you just know about Him?

Knowing God

To ‘Know‘-is from the Hebrew word, Yodea; it means to be dedicated to someone so we can engage them with love and affection, understanding their needs and caring for them faithfully while living out a covenant relationship with them.

Why does God know His people?

The Father demonstrated His love by giving His Son. For those who accepted HIs love, they have entered into a loving relationship with Him. He understands His people’s needs and cares for them. They have given their lives to Him and this covenant relationship will carry on into eternity.

I’ve asked many people if they know Jesus and though their responses may be positive, but their actions say otherwise. Without a sincere walk with Christ, knowledge of who God is will be absent.

I try not to judge someone based off appearance, although I have my doubts when I witness someone living a life that is offensive to God without any conviction of sin.

*The way many people think about what it means to have a relationship with Jesus is different than the way God portrays what it means to know someone.

Many people only know about Jesus. They’ve heard the stories, listened to the preachers, or went to Sunday school as a kid. They know about Him like we know about a movie star or famous athlete. We know what people say about them, gossip, slander, or even what we see in an interview but we really don’t know the person. What we see is a very small percentage of their life, through a lens that can be manipulated to present an idea they want their constituents to believe.

When God says, He knows us, let’s take a brief look at what that means.

Matthew 10:30 “But the very hairs of your head are all numbered. “So do not fear; you are more valuable than many sparrows.”

God knows every detail of you, there is nothing about you that escapes His knowledge.

Psalm 139:2 “O LORD, You have searched me and known me. You know when I sit and when I rise; You understand my thoughts from afar. You search out my path and my lying down; You are aware of all my ways. Even before a word is on my tongue, You know all about it, O LORD. You hem me in behind and before; You have laid Your hand upon me. Such knowledge is too wonderful for me, too lofty for me to attain.”

The Lord knows your every thought, what you will say before you speak it, where you’re going, and where you will lie down. Since He takes the effort to be that aware of your life, what does that say about you?

He values you!

Psalm 139:13-18 “I praise You, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made. Marvelous are Your works, and I know this very well. My frame was not hidden from You when I was made in secret, when I was woven together in the depths of the earth. Your eyes saw my unformed body; all my days were written in Your book and ordained for me before one of them came to be. How precious to me are Your thoughts,O God, how vast is their sum! If I were to count them, they would outnumber the grains of sand; and when I awake, I am still with You.”

The Lord saw you as you were being knitted together in your mother’s womb. Your value began at the moment of your conception.

Romans 8:27 “And He who searches our hearts knows the mind of the Spirit, because the Spirit intercedes for the saints according to the will of God.”

If the Lord knew us before we were yet born, if He knows every detail of our form down to the number of hairs on our heads, and He is acutely aware of what is on our minds, then He also knows our hearts and all that is in them….He knows Everything about us!

Nothing is hidden from the Lord and yet He still chooses to love us.

The reality of God’s love can be hard to accept. That fact that God can love us in spite of all our faults is for many too hard to believe. When we can’t forgive ourselves for the things we’ve done, we wonder how can a just and holy God forgive us?

Accepting God’s View

Shame can be a damaging pattern to live under. If we know we’ve done something wrong, there is no way to take it back. Asking God for forgiveness can be a difficult since it requires humility and repentance. Since there is nothing we can do to make up for our failures, it’s hard to believe we could receive grace without a cost.

We make the mistake of thinking grace is free. Grace came with a cost, Jesus made a very steep price so that He could give it away. The greatest way we can repay Him is by turning away from sin.

Confessing sin is a key part of healing.

1 John 1:9 “If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.”

Recognizing that God knows everything we are and everything we do is an important first step in taking responsibility for our actions and getting help if we need it. Confessing our sins to God is a recognition of God’s sovereignty as judge over our lives. Confessing sins to each other and praying for one another is key in healing from our past and moving forward.

James 5:16 “Confess your trespasses to one another, and pray for one another, that you may be healed. The effective, fervent prayer of a righteous man avails much.”

The restoration of relationship is God’s idea. He doesn’t encourage you to put the onus of a relationship on someone else by asking forgiveness, He says, take ownership of your mistakes and confess your sins to each other. Now, I’m not saying go around a tell everyone all the mistakes you’ve made, the pattern we see is in the midst of a loving fellowship with other believers. There are times of restoration that are needed, find those times and allow others to walk with you in healing. Believers love one another know the struggle of a sinful nature. Receiving grace and mercy allows us to close the door on our past and move forward in freedom.

Walking with God

If you’ve read the book of Job, you know the heartache that Job went through. The trials he endured are more than many people could handle, and yet near the end of his trial, we see what was required of him for God to restore him.

Job 42:10 “After Job had prayed for his friends, the LORD restored his prosperity and doubled his former possessions.”

*When Job prayed for his friends God released His blessing.

The way we love the Lord is by loving one another. Job showed his love and commitment to God through all the loss and suffering by recognizing that he wasn’t in control, God was. If he was to be restored, God would do the restoring, not him. God’s heart toward us is that of love, He invests that love so that it might overflow to others.

There is danger for the one who is apathetic. Apathy is described in the Cambridge dictionary as behavior that shows no interest or energy and shows that someone is unwilling to take action, especially over something important.

We may know that God sees everything we do, whether it’s sin done in secret, thoughts that condemn us, or hatred reserved in our hearts toward others, but if we don’t care, then we place ourselves in dangerous predicament. We cut ourselves off from healing, we remove ourselves from walking in God’s love and growing from our past.

If you want to live a meaningful life, the only way is by knowing and walking with God.

*He knows you. He knows everything about you. You can’t hide one little inkling of life from Him that He doesn’t know it. Praise God, He doesn’t overlook our areas of weakness and just say…”good enough!”, He continually presses us toward perfection. That is what Love looks like! God’s Love.

Since He knows everything about us and still chooses to love us, we can rejoice. This knowledge is the single greatest point of our existence. We are lost apart from Him. The more we see ourselves for who we are, the more we will realize our need for Jesus. The more we die to ourselves, the better, the more Jesus will be exalted in us and through us.

Romans 5:8 “But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.”

You see, there is no requirement to come forward and receive the love of Christ. He already knows us, He is already aware of what we bring to the table, it’s up to us to respond in humility. He then welcomes us with abundant grace and restores all that has been corrupted.

The walls we erect to protect ourselves have to come down.

They are a feeble attempt to secure our position against any further attacks from the enemy. God is your protector if you trust in Him. The protection that God has supplied us with is available for the taking.

1 Corinthians 13:11-13 “When I was a child, I spoke like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became a man, I gave up childish ways. For now we see in a mirror dimly, but then face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I have been fully known. So now faith, hope, and love abide, these three; but the greatest of these is love.”

If you love the Lord, get to know Him. Study the Word, talk to Him, and trust Him with your life.

Since God has taken such an interest in you and clearly He values your life, allow Him to do His work in you, He is trustworthy! He is able to bring to completion all He began in you if you only let Him.