He Knows Us

The blog post before the last one I was meditating on John 10:22-42 and there were 6 things that I saw this passage shows about followers of Christ. The first one, the one that I focused on that day was that we know His voice. The second one that I want to focus on today is that He knows us. Here's where that is in John 10:22-42:

My sheep recognize my voice. I know them, and they follow me. I give them real and eternal life.

I want to find some other verses that talk about Him knowing His followers.

Psalm 139:1-21:

1-6 God, investigate my life; get all the facts firsthand.
I'm an open book to you;
even from a distance, you know what I'm thinking.
You know when I leave and when I get back;
I'm never out of your sight.
You know everything I'm going to say
before I start the first sentence.
I look behind me and you're there,
then up ahead and you're there, too—
your reassuring presence, coming and going.
This is too much, too wonderful—
I can't take it all in!

7-12 Is there anyplace I can go to avoid your Spirit?
to be out of your sight?
If I climb to the sky, you're there!
If I go underground, you're there!
If I flew on morning's wings
to the far western horizon,
You'd find me in a minute—
you're already there waiting!
Then I said to myself, "Oh, he even sees me in the dark!
At night I'm immersed in the light!"
It's a fact: darkness isn't dark to you;
night and day, darkness and light, they're all the same to you.

13-16 Oh yes, you shaped me first inside, then out;
you formed me in my mother's womb.
I thank you, High God—you're breathtaking!
Body and soul, I am marvelously made!
I worship in adoration—what a creation!
You know me inside and out,
you know every bone in my body;
You know exactly how I was made, bit by bit,
how I was sculpted from nothing into something.
Like an open book, you watched me grow from conception to birth;
all the stages of my life were spread out before you,
The days of my life all prepared
before I'd even lived one day.

17-21 Your thoughts—how rare, how beautiful!
God, I'll never comprehend them!
I couldn't even begin to count them—
any more than I could count the sand of the sea.

This verse underscores how He is so great that we are unable to totally know or comprehend Him but He definitely knows everything there is to know about us! Each one individually.

Romans 5: 1-8
1-2 By entering through faith into what God has always wanted to do for us—set us right with him, make us fit for him—we have it all together with God because of our Master Jesus. And that's not all: We throw open our doors to God and discover at the same moment that he has already thrown open his door to us. We find ourselves standing where we always hoped we might stand—out in the wide open spaces of God's grace and glory, standing tall and shouting our praise.

3-5 There's more to come: We continue to shout our praise even when we're hemmed in with troubles, because we know how troubles can develop passionate patience in us, and how that patience in turn forges the tempered steel of virtue, keeping us alert for whatever God will do next. In alert expectancy such as this, we're never left feeling shortchanged. Quite the contrary—we can't round up enough containers to hold everything God generously pours into our lives through the Holy Spirit!

6-8 Christ arrives right on time to make this happen. He didn't, and doesn't, wait for us to get ready. He presented himself for this sacrificial death when we were far too weak and rebellious to do anything to get ourselves ready. And even if we hadn't been so weak, we wouldn't have known what to do anyway. We can understand someone dying for a person worth dying for, and we can understand how someone good and noble could inspire us to selfless sacrifice. But God put his love on the line for us by offering his Son in sacrificial death while we were of no use whatever to him.

There are a few aspects to this passage that demonstrate this concept of God knowing us:

• He knows me enough to know I needed a savior because of my sin. He died for each of us, knowing that we'd be dead in sin and need His substitutionary death on our behalf.
• He knows us and loves us just how we are
  
• He knows what we need and sometimes allows bad stuff to happen to us to build us into better people.

Whenever I think of Jesus' death on my behalf I can't help but remember scenes from the profound movie "The Passion" that Mel Gibson produced. I am so deeply grateful for what He suffered for all of us; but mostly I'm hit by the fact that He did that for me. My sins kept me from God but Jesus suffered so I could come near. My heart overflows with gratitude.

The reverend James F. Bracher had this to say about this passage in Romans 5:1-8:

" We must face the good new and bad news. The good news is that God knows us. The bad news is that God really does know us.

God knows our soul. God knows our intentions, motivations, anxieties, deepest hurts and most noble ambitions. So that we will not forget, we are justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have obtained access to this grace in which we stand; and we boast in our hope of sharing the glory of God. What makes our faith so wonderful is that we have access to the grace of God.

Access is everything-in faith, personal relationships, business dealings and international relations. Until the relationship is working, nothing proceeds very well. Transactions are possible and wars may be averted. Folks can mouth the words in worship services, and marriages can bump along, but meaning and purpose will not shine through."

Oh Father help me today to live for You. Thank You that You know me, know my need and provided a Savior. Thank You that You allow me access to You. Help me come close to You throughout the day so that I can be centered and live my life the way You want me to.