Rooting Our Identity in Christ: Known

In the last article, we talked about the importance of knowing the truth that we are not alone. That is definitely an important starting place, and something we need to remember. There is more to it though. Part of not feeling alone means feeling like we are known.

The connection between these two is part of what makes it possible to be in a room full of people you know and still feel alone. When we feel like people don’t truly know us, that loneliness can creep in, and along with it those whispered lies that people don’t like us enough to really get to know us, that if they really knew us they wouldn’t want us around, or any number of other things that the evil one can use to distract us from our true identity in Christ.

When we realize those lies or feelings are creeping in, there is truth that we can remember:

“O Lord, You have searched me and known me.
You know when I sit down and when I rise up;
You understand my thought from afar.
You scrutinize my path and my lying down,
And are intimately acquainted with all my ways.
Even before there is a word on my tongue,
Behold, O Lord, You know it all.”
Psalm 139:1-4

These are amazing verses. Take time and slowly read through them again, thinking about what is being said.

God has searched you. God KNOWS you. He knows you when you’re sitting or standing. He knows your thoughts. He knows where you’ve been, where you are at, and where you’re heading. He is “intimately acquainted” with all your ways. That phrase blows me away. God not just knows me and my ways, but He is knows them intimately. He is very familiar, and has very close, personal knowledge of me.  So close that He knows what I’m going to say before I even say it.

Have you ever had a really good friend or loved one who knows you so well and knows your stories and the way you think so well that they can pretty much finish your sentences. This is really nice when you’re so tired you can’t even complete your thought, but it’s okay because you don’t need to because they already know what you’re going to say. This is God. All the time. He knows you that well, and loves hearing from you even when He already knows what you are going to say.

If those verses aren’t enough and you still have doubts about just how well God knows you, take a look at Luke 12:6-7 with words directly from Jesus:

“Are not five sparrows sold for two cents? Yet not one of them is forgotten before God. Indeed, the very hairs of your head all all numbered. Do not fear; you are more valuable than many sparrows.”

Granted, numbering the hairs on some of our heads is more impressive than others, but no matter how many hairs are on our heads, the point is that God knows and and values us. While understanding how well God knows us is so important to deepening the roots of our identity in Him, it is incomplete without understanding that we can trust this to be true because of who God is.

We can have confidence that God knows us, because God knows everything. He is all-knowing, or to use a big, churchy word: God is omniscient. We see this stated clearly in 1 John 3:19-20 among other places:

“We will know by this that we are of the truth, and will assure our heart before Him in whatever our heart condemns us; for God is greater than our heart and knows all things.”

God knows all things. His knowledge of us is greater and more trustworthy than our own hearts. His knowledge of all things and of you and me is greater than our feelings and doubts. We can root ourselves in Christ and trust that we are intimately known by Him.