Psalm 139:1-4 "O Lord, you have searched me and known me. You know when I sit down and when I rise up; you discern my thoughts from far away. You search out my path and my lying down, and are acquainted with all my ways. Even before a word is on my tongue, O Lord, you know it completely.” Today's episode is about how well God knows us and why that is a really great thing! It also reminds us how much God loves us. Music:"Adding the Sun" Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com) Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 4.0 License http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
You Are Known
Psalm 139:1-4 "O Lord, you have searched me and known me. You know when I sit down and when I rise up; you discern my thoughts from far away. You search out my path and my lying down, and are acquainted with all my ways. Even before a word is on my tongue, O Lord, you know it completely.”
I read a post on Facebook yesterday that pointed me to Psalm 139. It was about different verse in the psalm, but when I read the whole thing I realized it was a really good one. They all probably are great. I have heard if you are going to start reading the Bible for the first time you should start with the Gospels, or with the Psalms. That must mean they are pretty good. These verses stood out to me in particular because they talk about how well God knows us. Being Known is one of the six stages of Attachment developed by psychologist Gordon Neufeld. His model presents six stages of attachment that create the foundations for virtually every relationship your children will ever have. Since we are God’s children, This is important to us as well. I will list the six stages and then will focus on Being Known. The stages are Proximity, Sameness, Belonging or Loyalty, Significance, Love & Being Known.
Reading through those I think this verse may touch on more than one of them. However, let’s begin with Being Known and go from there. Every single one of us longs to be known. This is why we get upset when our loved ones get us a gift we don’t like. It is not necessarily the gift that upsets us, it is the fact that they didn’t know us well enough to know we wouldn’t like it. God isn’t like that. God is omniscient, which means he has infinite awareness, understanding, and insight. Another definition is that He possesses universal or complete knowledge. God knows everything about you. He can read your thoughts, he knows your actions and He also knows your heart behind your actions. God knows why you did all the things you did.
This can be scary for some people because they feel they don’t want God to know everything about them. They feel they are not worthy of being known. Some people might worry that God knows all they have done because they have done some things they are not proud of. This is all of us actually. I am sure there is not a single person who has gone through their whole life without doing some things they are not proud of. We all say the wrong thing sometimes. We all do the wrong thing sometimes. We all hurt people intentionally or unintentionally. The thing to remember is that God is not surprised by our behavior. He has searched us and He knows us. This means He knows all of us. He doesn’t just look at the things we did that we wish we hadn’t done. He looks at everything we have done. He knows our motives behind all we have done. He looks straight into our heart.
This is a good thing because He sees what we can’t see. He knows that when we acted out and yelled that we hated our parents, we didn’t really hate them. He knows that when we yelled at our spouse or our friend it was really because we were hurting inside, or because we had an awful day at work and needed a safe space to let off steam. He knows that when we yelled at our children when we caught them doing drugs or something else dangerous it was because we were really scared. He knows that when we were unkind to the person in line it was because of all the stress and pressure at work. God Knows Everything! He gets it. He understands that our actions aren’t who we are. He knows that, but do we know that? Do we give ourselves the grace of examining our behavior after the fact? Do we allow ourselves forgiveness when we factor in our motives? I am not saying the things I listed above are good reasons to do those things. I don’t think we should take our frustrations out on our spouse, friends, or kids. I am not excusing the behaviors, I am explaining them though. If your friend was super stressed at work and then you called and asked a question and they yelled at you, would you be angry with them? Would you want to stop being friends with that person? Would you realize that was out of character and try to find out what was wrong with your friend? We tend to have so much grace for other people and yet not very much for ourselves. I would love it if we could change that. I would love it if we could all start to see ourselves a little more through the Lord’s eyes.
The next line says, “You search out my path and my lying down, and are acquainted with all my ways. Even before a word is on my tongue, O Lord, you know it completely.” God knows all your ways. He knows that you are grumpy before coffee in the morning. He knows you don’t like change. He knows you don’t like to stay up late. He knows you are irritable if you get hungry. He also knows you are a great mom, dad, friend. He knows you are a great employee, He knows you are a great spouse or partner. He knows the good, the bad and the ugly and you know what, He still loves you. He loves you not despite all of it, but because of all of it.
The verse says He knows our words even before we say them. I wish sometimes He would guard my mouth and prevent me from saying some of them. How about you? Have you ever wished you hadn’t say something? Have you ever just blurted something out that felt right in the moment and yet you instantly regretted it? I know I have. God knows our thoughts and He knows our words. Again, he knows the thoughts and feelings behind our words. He knows the feelings that we might not even know. Sometimes we may feel angry and yet we are just worried or anxious. God knows this. God knows our heart, even when we don’t.
We are known and loved by God. We are accepted and loved by God. God knows us better than anyone we have ever known and He loves us. I need everyone single one of you to hear that on an individual level today. You are known by God. God knows your inner most thoughts and desires. God knows the why behind your actions. God sees through all the BS that we put up to protect ourselves and He sees you, the real you. God loves you! He loves you right this very second, right as you are. He isn’t waiting for you to become something else, He isn’t waiting until to you do this or that, He isn’t waiting for you to be perfect. He knows you and loves you just as you are. He loves all you imperfections, He loves all the ways you spread His love and His light. Yes you do, you spread His love and His light just by being you! God loves you, all of you!!
Dear Heavenly Father, I ask you to bless all those listening to this episode today! Lord, I ask you to open everyone’s hearts and minds so they can really hear this message today. Help each and every listener hear how much you know them and how much you love them. Help them to feel it down to their core Lord. We ask you to guard our thoughts and our words. We pray that our thoughts conform to your thoughts. Lord you are so amazing. You know everything about us and you still love us. Help us to do the same. Help us to know ourselves and still love ourselves. Soften our hearts o Lord! We love you and we ask all of this in accordance with you will and in Jesus’ holy name, Amen!
Thank you so much for joining me on this journey to walk boldly with Jesus! I look forward to spending time with you again tomorrow. Remember Jesus loves you and so do I. Have a blessed day!