Day 37: Known
We live in a “highlight-reel” society. We use social media to put our best out there. We are trained to post our sexiest, smartest, coolest, or holiest statuses and pictures in order to get people to click a button that says we are “liked.” And yet, we lay on our beds each night thinking not about our highlights, but our bloopers. We know the worst that we have done. We know the disconnect between what we want, where we are, and what we do. We feel lonely deep down because we know that we are not really known. If people really knew everything about us, would they even have a reason to accept us? If others can’t accept me, or if I can’t eve accept myself, then how could God?
I remember years ago, I sat in a mentor’s office and told him a part of my story that I had not told anyone. I revealed the ugliest, most broken parts of me, the parts that I thought made me unacceptable. He turned, looked me in the eye, hugged me, and said that it changes nothing for our relationship. But something did change; I knew that I was finally, totally accepted. He did not accept me only for the good parts, but also the bad. He saw the best and worst, and he accepted all of it.
When none of me was finally hidden, I knew that all of me was finally accepted and totally loved.
I believe this is the approach we must take with God. We must know that God fully knows us. We need to expose ourselves fully to Him. When I know that God really knows all of me, I begin to see that God actually accepts me. In Christ, my worst parts have been atoned for and His best record has been given to me. I am totally known before God and am totally accepted in Him too.
To take it one step further, we need to do this for one another. We are designed to know, and to be known. We need to embrace, and to be embraced. As we do that, we will actually begin to give and receive the acceptance that God has for us. What if we were fully known by our siblings in Christ? What if we saw the unacceptable pieces of people and still accepted them? What if we were so broken yet so loved that we never lived insecure?
Read Proverbs 28:13 and Psalm 69:5
Questions to consider:
What is a way that you can better let someone in your world know and love you deeper this week? What is a way that you can deeper know and love someone in your world this week?
Prayer:
Father, thank you for knowing me intimately and loving me deeply. Help me to never hide from you or your people but rather run to You and your people to better be known and loved. Help me know others well and love them deeply.
By Pastor Christian Dawson