The God Who Knows You
“Lord, you know everything there is to know about me. You perceive every movement of my heart and soul, and you understand my every thought before it even enters my mind. You are so intimately aware of me, Lord. You read my heart like an open book and you know all the words I’m about to speak before I even start a sentence! You know every step I will take before my journey even begins. You’ve gone into my future to prepare the way, and in kindness you follow behind me to spare me from the harm of my past. You have laid your hand on me! This is just too wonderful, deep, and incomprehensible! Your understanding of me brings me wonder and strength.” (Psalm 139:1-6 TPT).
I think one of the hardest things we deal with in life is that everything is temporary. There is a time allotted to everything we experience in life. “To everything there is a season, a time for every purpose under heaven;” (Ecclesiastes 3:1-8 NKJV). The places that we live, the jobs that we have, the relationships that we share, they are all for a temporary time. As things change, as we move around, as people come and go in our lives sometimes we can find ourselves feeling unstable, unsure, unknown, and unfulfilled. But there is one thing that is not temporary. We will never be separated from the love of God. “For I am persuaded that neither death nor life, nor angels nor principalities nor powers, nor things present nor things to come, nor height nor depth, nor any other created thing, shall be able to separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.” (Romans 8:38-39 NKJV).
His love is permanent. I take such comfort in how He knows everything about me. My every thought, my every desire, my every concern, my every question. There is nothing I could hide from Him. No matter what changes in my life I am always fully known and loved by God. And I can trust Him completely because He has been to my future preparing it for me, and He protects me from any past unrighteousness in my life trying to keep me from what He has prepared. He is constant, He never changes, His love will never change. There is nothing I can do to make Him love me any more or any less than He does right now.
“Where could I go from your Spirit? Where could I run and hide from your face? If I go up to heaven, you’re there! If I go down to the realm of the dead, you’re there too! If I fly with wings into the shining dawn, you’re there! If I fly into the radiant sunset, you’re there waiting! Wherever I go, your hand will guide me; your strength will empower me. It’s impossible to disappear from you or to ask the darkness to hide me, for your presence is everywhere, bringing light into my night. There is no such thing as darkness with you. The night, to you, is as bright as the day; there’s no difference between the two.” (Psalm 139:7-12 TPT).
One of the things I have discovered in my own life about God is that there is nowhere I can go that He is not with me. When I tried to do life on my own, I thought I had walked so far away from Him I couldn’t even see my way back anymore. But much to my surprise the very moment I turned around to look for Him He was right there. I may have gone far away from where He wanted me, but He was never far from me. He never left me and never turned His face from me. When I thought there was nothing but darkness around me, He flooded my life with such light that I felt like I had a spotlight from heaven shining directly on me. There is no distance we can ever have from Him. He created us. He put something of Himself inside of each one of us and I think that causes us to always be searching for Him. How often we search this world for fulfillment in things, in people, in position or status, and yet we still feel empty. We can only be made complete by God, when we are united with Him, we are truly fulfilled. Fellowship and communion with Him are really what we crave. Much like a compass always wants to point North, I think our spirit always wants to connect to God.
“You formed my innermost being, shaping my delicate inside and my intricate outside, and wove them all together in my mother’s womb. I thank you, God, for making me so mysteriously complex! Everything you do is marvelously breathtaking. It simply amazes me to think about it! How thoroughly you know me, Lord! You even formed every bone in my body when you created me in the secret place, carefully, skillfully you shaped me from nothing to something. You saw who you created me to be before I became me! Before I’d ever seen the light of day, the number of days you planned for me were already recorded in your book. Every single moment you are thinking of me! How precious and wonderful to consider that you cherish me constantly in your every thought! O God, your desires toward me are more than the grains of sand on every shore! When I awake each morning, you’re still with me.” (Psalm 139:13-18 TPT).
I always thought that no one knew better for me than me. I always thought I knew what I wanted and what would make me happy and satisfied in life. No one could tell me any different. I can remember hearing most of my life, “God’s plan for your life is the best plan for your life.” But my mind just couldn’t really comprehend that. It wasn’t until I saw just how far I could get myself and how unsatisfied I was there that I finally began to believe in my heart that doing whatever God created me to do was the only way my life was going to be worth anything in the end. I knew it would probably cost me. He would have to “undo” some things I had done to get me back on the right path. But I knew it would be worth it because He created me with a purpose. He prepared works for me to do. He laid out my future and wrote the story of my life before my days on earth even began. He knows every desire He put in my heart and how to bring each one of them into my reality.
I finally reached a point where I trusted Him enough to completely relinquish all control and believe His plans for me are perfect. The moment I did that I know He began shifting things all around me. My whole life turned upside down both in good ways and scary ways. But I maintained that trust and today I can tell you that it was the best decision I have ever made. But I had to step aside and let Him come in and do it. I won’t say it was easy to do, but I will say I couldn’t get there with my mind. It couldn’t happen until I was convinced in my heart. That is ultimately what propelled me forward despite how hard it was or what it was going to cost me. He truly does want to bring us into our destiny, and His thoughts about us are always good and loving. If you feel like you can’t really get there, just ask Him to help you. Ask Him to open the eyes of your heart so that you can see His heart for you. He will do it. He wants good for you more than you can even imagine. His plans for you are perfect.
“God, I invite your searching gaze into my heart. Examine me through and through; find out everything that may be hidden within me. Put me to the test and sift through all my anxious cares. See if there is any path of pain I’m walking on, and lead me back to your glorious, everlasting way – the path that brings me back to you.” (Psalm 139:23-24 TPT).