Jesus Knows Me…This I Love
Jesus Knows Me
I have a plaque that states, “Jesus knows me – this I love.” This, of course, is a different take on the song, “Jesus loves me, this I know.” Both are amazing truths which deserve our attention and meditation. We hear many sermons and have many books about Jesus’ love for us. But how often are we fully aware that Jesus KNOWS us?
This can be both terrifying and comforting. If we are honest, most of us don’t really know ourselves.
Furthermore, we are afraid to allow our friends and family to know us intimately. We all have thoughts and motives that we hold in reserve or try to hide.
God’s Word clearly states that we are known by our CREATOR.
Jeremiah 1:5, “Before I formed you in the womb I knew you…”
Psalm 139:1-4, “O Lord, You have searched me and KNOWN me, You KNOW my sitting down and my rising up; You understand my thought afar off. You comprehend my path and my lying down, and are acquainted with all my ways. For there is not a word on my tongue, but behold, O Lord, You KNOW it altogether.
Psalm 139:15-16, “My frame was not hidden from you when I was made in secret and skillfully wrought in the lowest parts of the earth. Your eyes saw my substance, being yet unformed. And in your book they all were written, the days fashioned for me, when as yet there were none of them.
Jeremiah 17:9, “The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked: who can KNOW it?”
God alone truly KNOWS my heart. I deceive myself if I think I can hide anything from Him.
So, the ultimate question is this: Can I (can you) sincerely and expectantly pray Psalm 139:23,
“Search me, O God, and KNOW my heart; try me, and KNOW my anxieties (KJV thoughts).”
I know I have prayed this verse before. And gone on with my life without waiting for His answer. God already knows all my thoughts, all my anxieties, all my cares, all my failures, all my fears. It doesn’t take Him long to do the searching.
I can envision Him waiting patiently for me to stop and listen to His assessment of my superficial life.
Is He still waiting?
How long will He wait?
In the Old Testament, we are reminded often that God is
“…gracious and merciful, slow to anger, and of great kindness…” (Joel 2:13)
This is certainly true. Each of us can attest to God’s grace and mercy in our daily lives. We should be careful not to test God to see how long He will put up with our stubborn clinging to thoughts, feelings toward others, habits we refuse to change, or anxieties we refuse to cast at His feet.
We must not wait for His intervention which demands that we change.
God is looking for willing submission.
So, this is the terrifying side of God’s omniscience. Terrifying only if there are things I am trying to hide (or wishing I could hide) from Him.
Are you ready for some comfort?
Jesus is also our CARING SHEPHERD.
John 10:14, “I am the good shepherd; and I KNOW my sheep, and am known by my own.”
And John 10:27, “My sheep hear my voice, and I KNOW them, and they follow me.”
Verses 1-17 of John 10 teach us that Jesus cares for His sheep. He cares so much, in fact, that He laid down His life for His sheep.
He KNOWS His sheep. He KNOWS we are stubborn, wayward, finicky and fidgety, anxious, easily startled and distracted, and pretty much unable to extricate ourselves from bushes, brambles, and snares that pique our interest.
In spite of this knowledge, or perhaps because of it, He gave His life for us. Without His love, mercy, and grace, we were hopelessly doomed.
He also KNOWS what we need.
Matthew 6:8, “…For your Father KNOWS the things you have need of before you ask Him.”
Matthew 6:28-32, “So why do you worry about clothing? Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow: they neither toil nor spin; and yet I say to you that even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these. Now if God so clothes the grass of the field, which today is, and tomorrow is thrown into the oven, will He not much more clothe you, O you of little faith? Therefore, do not worry, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear?’ For after all these things the Gentiles seek. For your heavenly Father KNOWS that you need all these things.”
Job 23:10, “But He KNOWS the way that I take…”
Psalm 1:6, “for the Lord KNOWS the way of the righteous…”
Psalm 37:18, “The Lord KNOWS the days of the upright…”
Psalm 103:14, “For He KNOWS our frame; He remembers that we are dust.”
When life gets messy, when wayward sheep get “stuck,” when anxiety and fear would overwhelm us God KNOWS that we are just dust.
Genesis 2:7, “And the Lord God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living soul.”
He KNOWS me, and yet, He loves me.
Psalm 139:6, “Such knowledge is too wonderful for me…”
Jesus knows me, this I love.
From His heav’nly home above
He came down to meet my need.
He now lives to intercede.
Yes, Jesus knows me;
Yes, Jesus knows me.
Yes, Jesus knows me,
He loves and cares for me.
