Known

Sometimes I feel like I can't be good enough for God.  I know I really can't be good enough, not on my own anyway, but do you know what I mean?  Do you ever feel that way?  I get this feeling that I'm dirty and sinful, and I'm sure that it's the devil attacking me and trying to bring me down, but I even think, "How could God ever love a person like me?"  It can get overwhelming at times.


BUT, the incredible thing about God is that He knows exactly what I'm going through.  


And it's not a "I-know-what-you're-going-through-even-though-I've-never-been-there-myself-and-I'm-just-pretending-to-empathize-with-you" kind of understanding.


He's saying to me, "I've been in your shoes.  I know your struggles and I want to help you through them."  It's that kind of understanding.  What a peace it brings for me to think about and meditate on.


Anyway, I was kind of in that kind of funk a few days ago and I started to notice a few things in my Bible readings each day.  It was so clear that it may as well have painted a picture for me.  The details were unbelievably vibrant.


The first verse I came across was John 2:25, which reads, "...for He Himself knew what was in man."  It was this immediately relevant passage that truly spoke into my heart.  It was as if God  gently reminded me that Jesus knew what He was getting into when He came to earth.  He knew what man was like.  He even knew me.  He knew my character traits, my personality, my good qualities and my bad ones.  He knew that I would have great days of praising and glorifying the Father and He knew that I would have terrible days filled with mistakes and sin.


At the very beginning of His ministry, "He Himself knew what was in man."


Astonishing!


In addition to that, He even told everyone that He knew our flaws:


"For everyone who does wicked things hates the light and does not come to the light, lest his deeds should be exposed."  John 3:20


He knew them!  He knew that we were sinful and He knew that we would even run from the light because of our sin, and yet...and yet...


He still went to the cross.


He still died for our sins.


As He took His last breath, He still said, "Father, forgive them."


I don't know what kind of love could possibly possess a man who knows the sins of the world and would still die for that very world, but I know that is a love I want to permeate my life.  That is a love I want to share with others.  And that is a love I want to completely overwhelm me and break me to the point of sacrificing my whole life for the glory of God.


I'm praying that you encounter that very same love in such a deeply intimate way that it radically alters your frame of mind, that it changes you to the very core of who you are, and that it moves you so that you can do nothing else with your life but shout it to the nations.


As I am reminded of Psalm 34:8, "Taste and see that the Lord is good!" I am also encouraged that it is good to be known by that kind of God.