pastorway: Know and Known

TIME in the Word - Daily Devotional

Verse for the Day - John 10:14
I am the good shepherd; and I know My sheep, and am known by My own.

Daily Scripture Reading – Exodus 4

Puritan Catechism
Question #5: Are there more Gods than one?
Answer: There is but one only (Deut. 6:4), the living and true God (Jeremiah 10:10).

Devotional Thoughts

Not only does Jesus know us - we know Him! He says that just as He knows us and loves us we who are His sheep know and love and trust Him. The relationship flows both ways. That, by the way, is why prayer is as much listening as talking! It is communication in the midst of a living relationship.

To know Him means that He is familiar to us. We recognize His hand and His work in our lives. We know His voice and respond to His care for us. We know Him! We believe Him and His Word. Those who are His sheep, those He has redeemed, we don't view Him as a stranger or unknown. That is why faith cannot ever truly be described as a leap in the dark. Faith is knowing and trusting that if He says it He means it. And when we believe Him, our speech, behavior, and feelings will follow our faith!

Of course the really good news is that He knew us before we knew Him and He still chose to come and save us (1 John 4:19). He knew us first, loved us first, gave Himself for us, and then gave us grace, new life, repentance, and faith so that we could know Him (Ephesians 2:1-2, 8-10; Romans 8:29-30; Acts 5:31). This life is nothing more than a small window of opportunity to get to know Him better before we finally meet face to face one day soon.

Part of knowing Him is indeed trusting Him. A Christian lady gave testimony that as a young teenager being the child of missionaries in China, during WWII she was separated from them and put in a prison camp with other "foreigners" as Japan occupied northern China. Through the ministry of missionary and Olympic athlete Eric Liddell (from Chariots of Fire fame) she learned that God was indeed with her and was so sovereign as to have put her right where she was. She learned to trust God and actually enjoy her time in the prison camp because if God took the time to put her there then that was right where He wanted her and nothing could happen that He didn't cause or allow! So why worry? She testified that she has never felt the presence of Christ so strongly as those years when her spirit was free even though her body was captive.

We must learn to trust like that. Look how easy we've got it!! Yes we have struggles and trials and temptations, but no one is holding a gun to our head demanding that we forsake Christ or die! We are free. Free in our religious practice, or sadly as many practice it, free from religion. We especially in the church in the Western world have become so apathetic, so uncaring and untrusting. We claim to know Him but we have forsaken His Word, deny His deity, disobey His will, disregard His Word, and disdain His ministers. Those who truly preach the Word are seen as fanatics and relics of an old way of life. Of course all the prophets were seen as such. It is time we really knew Him to the point that it stirs us up!

He knows us and we know Him - and we can no longer pick and choose when we are going to know and obey him and when we aren't! It's time to obey. It's time to see that the one who spends his life on his knees stands taller than any other! Oh for revival - for renewal – for fire! I pray that you, His church, wake up and become so burdened by the fact that we know Him but so seldom speak of Him. We have tasted of His grace and love. We know what it is to be known by Him and to know Him. How can we keep quite? We need a burden for the lost and a desire for missions, we need to be overwhelmed with introducing everyone we can to the One who knows us!

Today, we must stop and thank Him for His willingness to love us and extend grace to us - His amazing work of redemption in our lives day by day as He conforms us to the image of His Son. And when you feel all alone today remember, He knows you! He knows where you are and what you're doing (that might be a deterrent to sin, huh?). He knows what you're going through and what you need. And really all we need is HIM! If you really know Him, ACT LIKE IT! And expect that the world will treat you just like it did Him! So what? His grace is sufficient and remember the testimony of those who have gone before: HE PUT YOU RIGHT WHERE YOU ARE - IF HE DIDN'T WANT YOU WHERE YOU ARE HE WOULD MOVE YOU - SO ACCEPT IT AND MAKE THE MOST OF IT - MAKE HIM KNOWN! (John 17:3).

Bible Reading For Further Study