The past couple of days I have been pondering the concept of knowing and being known. As small children we often tell people exactly what we are thinking and feeling without shame or fear of what they will think. In this, we are transparent and have the ability to be known. Maybe it's just me, but as I grew up, I gained a sense of not always being the person that others really wanted to know, so I became very careful what I revealed and to whom I revealed it. Consequently, loneliness became part of my everyday experience. Along the way, God sent people with whom I could be more vulnerable and share more of my thoughts and feelings and struggles. I am so thankful for these dear people. Some were just in my life for a season, and some (like Tucker) have been walking alongside me for decades.
Why is it so important to be known? Why not just tread the path of life as a lone ranger? Work hard, get rich, buy stuff, make a few surface level friends to share good times with and then die. There are those who do exactly this. Perhaps they have a family--even a beautiful and successful family--but their hearts are empty and lonely. No one really knows them--especially not themselves.
Our Creator wishes to be known. "Thus says the Lord: “Let not the wise man boast in his wisdom, let not the mighty man boast in his might, let not the rich man boast in his riches, but let him who boasts boast in this, that he understands and knows me, that I am the Lord who practices steadfast love, justice, and righteousness in the earth. For in these things I delight, declares the Lord.” (Jeremiah 9:23-24) God desires that we know Him! In fact, Jesus said that eternal life was knowing God. "And this is eternal life, that they know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom you have sent." (John 17:3) Eternal life isn't about some far off land called heaven in the future when our life on earth is done. It is NOW! It is knowing the one true God at this moment and knowing him increasingly more day after day.
So, He wants to be known and eternal life is knowing Him. How do I do this? Jeremiah also recorded God saying, "You will seek me and find me when you seek me with all your heart." (Jeremiah 29:13) Seeking Him with all my heart in part means laying down everything I think I have or believe I am and surrendering to His plan for my life. Right before this verse in Jeremiah 29, God said he has good plans for His people. Plans involving "a future and a hope." His people had been faithless, yet, he wanted to be known by them and had a future for them. The same is true for me and you. I know I have lacked faith in His provision. I have gotten distracted from seeking Him with all my heart.
In Genesis 1 we learn, "So God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them." (Genesis 1:27) We are created in the image of the Creator Who wishes to be known. No wonder I felt so lonely as a child when I was hiding myself from others! I was created to be known. You were created to be known...and we were all created by the One true God Who desires to be known by us and to know us! What an overwhelming privilege. As the apostle Paul wrote in Philippians, knowing God often comes through great trial. "Indeed, I count everything as loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. For his sake I have suffered the loss of all things and count them as rubbish, in order that I may gain Christ and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which comes through faith in Christ, the righteousness from God that depends on faith— that I may know him and the power of his resurrection...." (Philippians 3:8-10a)
This storm in my life is of eternal value. It is showing me moment by moment how much more I need to desire to truly know Christ and that I must seek Him. In the uncertainties of each day and the pain, I have no inner resources, I must seek Him. Hallelujah that He so desires to be known my ME that He will walk through this fire with me.
This song by Graham Kendrick sums up my desires in the midst of this storm.
~meredith
(All Scripture quoted from the English Standard Version)
Why is it so important to be known? Why not just tread the path of life as a lone ranger? Work hard, get rich, buy stuff, make a few surface level friends to share good times with and then die. There are those who do exactly this. Perhaps they have a family--even a beautiful and successful family--but their hearts are empty and lonely. No one really knows them--especially not themselves.
Our Creator wishes to be known. "Thus says the Lord: “Let not the wise man boast in his wisdom, let not the mighty man boast in his might, let not the rich man boast in his riches, but let him who boasts boast in this, that he understands and knows me, that I am the Lord who practices steadfast love, justice, and righteousness in the earth. For in these things I delight, declares the Lord.” (Jeremiah 9:23-24) God desires that we know Him! In fact, Jesus said that eternal life was knowing God. "And this is eternal life, that they know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom you have sent." (John 17:3) Eternal life isn't about some far off land called heaven in the future when our life on earth is done. It is NOW! It is knowing the one true God at this moment and knowing him increasingly more day after day.
So, He wants to be known and eternal life is knowing Him. How do I do this? Jeremiah also recorded God saying, "You will seek me and find me when you seek me with all your heart." (Jeremiah 29:13) Seeking Him with all my heart in part means laying down everything I think I have or believe I am and surrendering to His plan for my life. Right before this verse in Jeremiah 29, God said he has good plans for His people. Plans involving "a future and a hope." His people had been faithless, yet, he wanted to be known by them and had a future for them. The same is true for me and you. I know I have lacked faith in His provision. I have gotten distracted from seeking Him with all my heart.
In Genesis 1 we learn, "So God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them." (Genesis 1:27) We are created in the image of the Creator Who wishes to be known. No wonder I felt so lonely as a child when I was hiding myself from others! I was created to be known. You were created to be known...and we were all created by the One true God Who desires to be known by us and to know us! What an overwhelming privilege. As the apostle Paul wrote in Philippians, knowing God often comes through great trial. "Indeed, I count everything as loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. For his sake I have suffered the loss of all things and count them as rubbish, in order that I may gain Christ and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which comes through faith in Christ, the righteousness from God that depends on faith— that I may know him and the power of his resurrection...." (Philippians 3:8-10a)
This storm in my life is of eternal value. It is showing me moment by moment how much more I need to desire to truly know Christ and that I must seek Him. In the uncertainties of each day and the pain, I have no inner resources, I must seek Him. Hallelujah that He so desires to be known my ME that He will walk through this fire with me.
This song by Graham Kendrick sums up my desires in the midst of this storm.
~meredith
(All Scripture quoted from the English Standard Version)
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