God Knows Me

Last night I came home from a mission trip and this morning I was very, very tired. I opened my bible to the next place in my bible reading plan, but decided to meditate on a well-known Psalm of David instead. I didn’t want anything deeply theological this morning, so I chose something devotional instead. Opening up at Psalm 139, I read, ‘O Lord, you have searched me and you know me.’ The words ‘you know’ jumped out from the page and captured my attention. Almighty God, who created the universe, who painstakingly moulded the mountains, and who threw the stars into space, actually knows comparatively insignificant, little me. ‘Wow!’ I exclaimed to myself as I continued to read the next few verses. ‘You know when I sit and when I rise, you perceive my thoughts … you discern my going …you are familiar with all my ways …’ (Psalm 139:2-3). That’s pretty intimate! Then the words of a secular song I used to like came into my mind, and I winced as I thought of the lyrics. The song writer had a very different understanding of God from King David. He wrote that God was watching each of us from a distance. Often people view God in this way, but it’s not the truth. Our God isn’t a God who stands aloof and watches us from a distance, but rather One who’s close up and personal!

Perhaps you need to be reminded of that fact today. Even if God seems like He’s a million miles away, the truth of the matter is that He’s actually very, very close and longs to be intimately involved in every aspect of your life – including that which brings you stress and sorrow. God doesn’t watch us in the way we watch a reality show on the television. Even though we may empathise with the people, and feel that we know them in a small way, in reality we’re not part of their lives. We’re watching them from the safety of our television screens and we’re not really involved in a meaningful way at all. God, on the other hand, is as involved in our lives as we allow Him to be, and knows us more intimately than anyone else – perceiving our thoughts, monitoring the issues of our hearts, familiar with both the most mundane and most sacred moments of our lives. What amazes me more than even this is that He, who knows me the most, fully and completely, also loves me the most! He sees what others don’t see, and yet His heart still brims over with love, mercy and compassion for me, His child. You and I are both known in an intimate way by our Maker, and He invites us to draw closer and closer to Him.

Prayer: Father God, thank You that You’re not a God who watches us from a distance, but rather a personal God, who both knows us and longs to be known. I want to know You more, and be more aware of Your abiding presence in my life. Thank You that You haven’t left me to fend on my own. In Jesus’ name. Amen.