Spirituality is "stock-up" while religion is "stock-down" in our culture. For many this means that we can seek after God, but never make any definitive statements about who he is. And that would be true – if God had not revealed himself to us so clearly!
God can be known! In fact he delights in being known! And one of the reasons is that our God delights in relationships. The Trinitarian nature of God shows that God exists in and for relationships. God calls us into relationship with himself so we can know him and so that we can know that he knows us.
Paul talks about this two-way relationship like this: "…now that you have come to know God, or rather to be known by God…"
Galatians 4:9
Being known by God is as crucial as knowing God himself. J.I. Packer in his "must read" book, Knowing God, makes this amazing affirmation about being known by God:
"I am graven on the palms of his hands. I am never out of his mind. All my knowledge of him depends on his sustained initiative in knowing me. I know him because he first knew me, and continues to know me. He knows me as a friend, one who loves me; and there is no moment when his eye is off me, or his attention distracted from me, and no moment, therefore, when his cares falters."
"This is momentous knowledge… There is tremendous relief in knowing that his love to me is utterly realistic, based at every point on prior knowledge of the worst about me, so that no discovery now can disillusion him about me, in the way I am so disillusioned about myself, and quench his determination to bless me."
As you meditate on the privilege of knowing God, think also on his knowing you!
(Click here for passages to meditate upon this week)
The well wisher of your soul's happiness,
Pastor Tom
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