He already knows

God knows everything.  Literally everything.  You and I have never met a person like that.  Sure, we have met what we might call a "know it all" who thinks they know everything.  But there's a huge difference between that person and God:  that person doesn't actually know everything.  Sometimes they pretend or can fake it for a while, but there is a huge list of things that they just don't know.  And they never will.

God is not like that.  He knows everything.  I'm a teacher by training and by heart, but my profession would be of absolutely no use to God.  I know a lot of science and can explain in my own way how things work behind the scenes.  But God invented all of that.  He created atoms with their subatomic particles that spin around in certain directions.  He made it to where those atoms could come together in patterns to form objects.  He created living cells that are as intricate and complex as any major city, including plumbing, electrical, transport and energy production.  He created all of those things, so listening to me talk about it would not teach him anything new.  

God knows what happened yesterday in the news.  He knows the people that were involved in that story, their names, their history, and their motivations.  He knows the newscasters who talk about it on the evening news along with their stories and motivations.  He knows the writers who post the information on the internet and their stories.

God knew who our current president was going to be thousands of years before America was even formed as a nation.  God already knows who the next president will be.  He knew the previous 45 presidents of the United States and their personal histories.  He was there when they were born and he was there (or will be there) when they die.

Mankind is still in the process of naming the stars of the sky.  God already did that (Psalm 147:4).

Mankind is still learning about the laws of the universe.  God already knows them and uses them to manage the earth (Job 38:33).

Mankind is trying in futility to figure out why things are the way they are right now.  God already knows why (Ecclesiastes 3:1-11)

God was there the day you began to be formed inside of your mother's womb (Psalm 139:13-15).  He watched as one cell became two which turned into many.  He gazed as all of the intricacies of your body formed.  He was there when your mother gave birth to you.  He knows how hard that was for your mother because he knew her in the same way that he knows you.

God already knows what will happen every minute of your life.  He can tell you where you will be 20 years from this moment, what you will have eaten that day, and how much sleep you got the night before (Psalm 139:16).  He knows about the best moments of your life and he knows about the worst ones.  Yes, even those really bad moments that you wish you could take back or that you wish would just stop haunting you.  He knows about those too.

God knows you.  He knows what your favorite color and food are.  He knows what you like to do with your time.  He knows what books you have read, where you purchased them, and who you purchased them from (John 1:47-48).  He knows what you were thinking last night at 9:14pm.  He knows what was on your mind on Sunday morning.  He knows not only what you said to every person you spoke to last week, but he knows why you said it.  He saw your body language as you spoke and the way your hands and your head moved as you spoke.  Yep, even those words.  He saw you, and he heard them.

He can tell you what was going on when you had encounters with him in your everyday life and rejected him.  He knows about those times when you turned away and decided to follow your own way.  He knows if you will ever come back to him and when that time is.  He knows about every time when you were bitterly angry with him, how you cried because you didn't understand something he had allowed in your life, and he knows when you just were indifferent to him.  He was there every time you had the opportunity to give praise to him but did not.

It is possible that all of these ideas are overwhelming to you.  In this day and age these ideas may even seem a little bit creepy.  But consider this:  why would God himself take all of this time to know everything about you?  What's the point of all of that?  Is it that he wants to micromanage our lives?  No, we have daily evidence that he doesn't do that.  Remember all of those mistakes and missteps you made?  He allowed them to happen.  No, he is not a micromanager.

Is it possible, just possible, that this God who knows so much about you actually cares for you?  Is it at all possible that he looks at you with a desire that you know him for real?  Is it possible he cares about you...a whole lot?

Think of it this way.  God knows all of your faults and all of your flaws and all of the temptations you fall prey to, and yet he still pays this much attention to you.  You might be thinking "well sure, he's everywhere, so of course he would see everything I do."  Yes, that is true, but to me the fact that he knows this much about you and I shows a God of love.  It's a love that I just can't understand and probably never will.  It's a love that surprises me so often because it is just relentless.  It is a love too big to even imagine.  While I'm sitting there wondering why he would even bother with me, he's there with open arms, wanting me to go further in relationship with him.  It's this way with you, too.

I don't know what you are dealing with in your life but I know you need to hear this message.  Many of you are weary after being in a lockdown from a virus for an entire year.  You might be weary from losing your job and being unable to get another one.  You may be weary from your past and from the tremendous hurt you have carried for many years.  

Whatever those things are, you can know today that God is absolutely, fully aware of it all and is waiting on you right now to just rest in his arms.  He isn't doing that because he needs that from you.  He's doing it because he wants to, because he cares, because he loves.  He loves you.  And he wants you to fall in love with him.

How to be godly: relationship first

When I was what I considered to be a new Christian in college, I experienced a pretty dramatic change in my lifestyle.  I went from being a man ruled by anger and bitterness to deeply desiring God in so many moments in life.  I began waking up every day and reading God's word, devouring every bit of it that I possibly could.  It was like I was reading it for the first time and day after day I learned new things about what the life of a Christian is supposed to be like.  

Like many new to the faith, I began thinking that much of this change that was supposed to be occurring in me would be based upon my own work.  If I read the Bible more, surely this would make God happier with me.  If I memorized scripture, I would gain his favor.  I developed this kind of mindset that I could work my way into Christianity.

While there is some work we can do to deepen our faith, a focus on that sort of thing by itself is wrong.  It elevates us in our own minds to being super-powerful.  In its worst form it can become an idol, making us think that we can truly do anything including gaining greater stature with God.  I think that's why so many of us know people who are churchgoers who don't actually behave as a Christian.  Sure, they attend church and may know what some scripture says, but they rely on themselves to apply it in their lives which leads to an eventual failure because they go in their own strength.  They never actually surrender themselves to this God that can take up residence inside of them and change them over time.  It's all about them.

If we are unable for long periods of time to be more godly, how can we actually become more"godly?"  How can our small measure of faith that we have in Jesus Christ turn into anything larger?  Are there actually next steps to faith?

Peter wrote some great words about it that I have copied below.

2 Peter 1:3-4- 3 By his divine power, God has given us everything we need for living a godly life. We have received all of this by coming to know him, the one who called us to himself by means of his marvelous glory and excellence. 4 And because of his glory and excellence, he has given us great and precious promises. These are the promises that enable you to share his divine nature and escape the world’s corruption caused by human desires.

Immediately this passage turns our ideas of godliness on its head.  Peter openly states that we have "everything we need for a godly life."  We already have it.  If we already have it, it must have been given to us somehow and by someone.  The next sentence completes the thought.

We received this gift by coming to know Christ.  Now let's consider what this really means.  I believe American Christians may believe that this indicates that when we "accept Jesus into our hearts," this gift that Peter describes is immediately given.  That does have some element of truth but is far too simple of an explanation.  This is rooted in the misconception that "accepting Jesus" is like crossing the finish line of a race.  Once you have crossed it, you have gotten your way into Heaven and nothing else is required.  The trouble with that sort of thinking is that it is not supported anywhere in scripture.  Jesus himself spoke many things that contradict that idea as did all of the apostles who followed him.

Christianity is instead portrayed in the Bible as more of a marathon that is difficult and challenging and follows a path that few people actually follow.  What if "accepting Jesus" is instead the crossing of the starting line in a marathon?  What if in doing that you've only just begun the race and you still have 26.2 miles to go?  When you realize that, it changes everything about how you view your relationship with God.

When Peter says in the second sentence that we receive this "by coming to know him," he's making an important statement.  He is implying that coming to know Jesus is a process instead of an event.

Think of it this way.  Imagine the person on this earth that you are closest to.  It may be a best friend or your spouse or significant other, a brother or sister.  When you first met that person did you truly know them?  Did you know everything about them at that moment?  Did you know exactly how they think and suddenly have the ability to complete their sentences for them?  Did you know at that moment everything they like or don't like?  Did you know their past and their dreams for the future?  Of course not.  That kind of knowledge takes time to develop, and it is developed by spending time with them and talking to them and listening to them.  Even after 22 years of marriage, I'm still learning new things about Amanda!

If that's true in your everyday life, why would it be any different with Jesus?  You prayed a prayer in church one day and you suddenly know everything about Jesus and how he thinks and how he interacts with people?  No, it just doesn't happen that way.  When you invited Jesus into your heart to stay, you in effect have just said the initial "hello" to him.  It's like shaking hands and introducing yourself to someone for the first time.  That was just the initial encounter and there is so much that remains to be seen in your life.  His purpose for you is so much more grand than you can even imagine!

How, then, do we "come to know him?"  It takes time!  Lots of time.  In my life it began with devouring scripture and thinking on it.  Later it came with studying in greater depth what a passage meant.  Still later it came with promptings Jesus put into my life and my decision in that moment to obey or to not obey.  And it continues to this day as I go through day to day life, the high highs and the deep lows that come from obeying (or not obeying) Jesus everyday.  With each instance, I gain a little more insight into what he wants for me.  I learn a little more about his character as he speaks to me, by looking at the things he speaks to me about through scripture, and also by his moments of silence.

Peter goes further at the end of verse 3.  He says that as we get to know Jesus, his call comes by "means of his marvelous glory and excellence."  We read in scripture that Jesus is God's son, that he is divine, and that he is God in the flesh.  As we read about his life on earth we see a picture of his glory and excellence through his love and caring for the worst of sinners and through his everyday obedience.  He never sinned!  Not once!  

But Peter's statement about us "coming to know him" takes it so much further than that.  As we learn to hear Jesus speaking to us through daily Bible reading, through promptings in our brain, and through others speaking to us, we begin to get a glimpse of how incredible he truly is!  He sees everything, intimately knows us and what we are going through, sees our highs and lows, our obedience and our disobedience, and he still loves us and interacts with us.  This is attractive to me because it is unlike any other relationship I have in my life!

Like you, I have many relationships with many different people.  Some are true friends and know what's happening in my everyday life.  They are the ones who know how to pray for me and my family, and they are few.  Others are people I like but I don't speak to on a regular basis.  Still others are colleagues, and we may talk when one of us needs something but not otherwise.  Even when it comes to my closest friends, though, there are things that I can do to cause severe damage to the relationship due to my own behavior and choices!  Some of those things could even damage the relationship beyond repair!  It just isn't that way with Jesus though.  Even though he has had countless reasons to abandon me, he never has.  And he never will.  Someone like that is unique, and it makes me want to know them more.

What you discover over time is that when you begin to learn more about Jesus, more of his character begins to shine through you in ways that you just don't expect and never intended.  Your desires change from material things to just desiring more time with him.  And as you spend more of that time with him, he continues to poke holes in you and create cracks in your old self to where he shines out of you to a greater degree.  And then it all becomes visible to others.  For me, that's a large reason why I write this blog!  It helps me to consider at a deeper level what Christ is speaking into my life.  Who really cares if anyone reads it!

The point Peter is making is that we won't become more like Jesus on our own.  Trust me, I have tried.  Instead, Peter is saying that the power to do that comes from Jesus himself!  And it is given in greater and greater measure as we spend more and more time with him.  This just comes through everyday experiences with him, through reading scripture, prayer, "chance" encounters in everyday life whether in your community or at a local store or shop or at work.  Jesus is in all of those things!  In those moments we can either see them as they are, God's interaction in our life, or we can just see them as random encounters.  One leads closer to Jesus;  the other does not.

You may find after reading this that you don't know Jesus like I'm describing.  You thought you had crossed the finish line a while back when you "accepted Christ," but you just haven't seen anything since then.  The relationship you thought you might have had seems like stale religion.  You look at others who talk about Jesus with excitement and you wonder why you don't feel that same way, so you begin to feel that's unique to some Christians.  But it isn't unique.  It's available to you too.  

If you find yourself in that spot today, I encourage you to go put away all of your electronic devices and just start reading in the book of Matthew.  Read as much or as little as you would like, but stop periodically to see what it is telling you about Jesus.  Pay attention to the questions it raises in your heart and seek some answers from a good Bible commentary or from a friend who you think can help you.  Above all things, spend some time in prayer!  As I have said before, sometimes just sitting in silence before the Lord is incredibly impactful!  In this manner at times you may see something he will lay on your heart.  It takes time, but he has all of the time in the world.  And if it takes more of your time than you would have chosen, is that really a bad thing if in the end you begin your departure from the starting line and begin really heading down the path?

We will continue unpacking this passage in my next post.