day no. 14,614: everyone wants to be known... and loved

Psalm 139
Everyone wants to be known… and loved. If you are known, but the person who has you figured out despises what they've found, it does no good to reason, "at least I'm known by someone."

We desire to be known and to be loved and frequently find ourselves frustrated because others don't get us or they despise what they do get about us. 

Enter God. He knows us. He KNOWS. He gets us. He knows what we think, why we think it, what we want and why we want it. He knows how we feel and how others feel about us. He knows what we've endured and how hard it was to endure it. He knows when we've given up and when we've shown patience. He sees what we do in secret and understands our motives and movements.

This reality produces two VERY different reactions. If your relationship with God is by grace through faith being known is a beautiful thing. If your relationship with God is by merit through will power being known is terrifying. In the first place, the comfort of God knowing everything about you and forgiving it is Gospel salve that heals all wounds of conscience. In the latter case, the agony is knowing that no matter how much you convince others that you're good, God knows that you're not. He knows what you've imagined doing, He knows the words you've left unsaid and the actions left undone. He knows which were a result of cowardice and which were a matter of opportunity. He knows what you wished you could or would do and that is terrifying. Despite your best attempts to be something you're not, you're known – you're caught. There is no getting away with anything. There is nowhere you can go or anything you could do that God would not know.

This should be either your greatest hope and cause for celebration or your greatest fear and cause for repentance.