DAILY DEVOTIONAL – January 15, 2020
“Who Knows You?”
Prayer: Lord Jesus, as Your disciples You have called us out of this world. This place is not our home. You warned us that there will be days where we feel like foreigners not only in this world but even to ourselves because of the new creation You have made us to be. Lord, help us each day to take confidence in Your promises and in the unshakable salvation You won for us through Your life, death and resurrection. Amen.
Scripture: Psalm 139:1-6; 13-16
O Lord, you have searched me and known me!
2 You know when I sit down and when I rise up;
you discern my thoughts from afar.
3 You search out my path and my lying down
and are acquainted with all my ways.
4 Even before a word is on my tongue,
behold, O Lord, you know it altogether.
5 You hem me in, behind and before,
and lay your hand upon me.
6 Such knowledge is too wonderful for me;
it is high; I cannot attain it.
For you formed my inward parts;
you knitted me together in my mother’s womb.
14 I praise you, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made.
Wonderful are your works;
my soul knows it very well.
15 My frame was not hidden from you,
when I was being made in secret,
intricately woven in the depths of the earth.
16 Your eyes saw my unformed substance;
in your book were written, every one of them,
the days that were formed for me,
when as yet there was none of them.
Devotional – “Who Knows You?”
Throughout my professional life, I have taken a countless number of personality questionnaires and assessments. Prior to becoming a pastor, I worked in corporate America as a Director of Sales and Operations. My wife and I were also blessed to be able to start and own our own small business for just over a decade. In nearly every professional occupation I have had, at some point the HR department has required that I take a personality test and assessment. It was no different for seminary. Part of my training as a pastor was knowing my own personality type and gaining an awareness of the different personalities of the people I would work with.
At least according to the DISC personality test I took innumerable times, I am predominantly a D personality with a bit of I mixed in. Both a D and I personalities are categorized as “fast-paced & outspoken”, with D being more skeptical and questioning, and I being more accepting and warm.
While I certainly can see where these categories and personality assessments have their place, I also know that no one is exclusively one or the other, and there are certainly days when I feel very much like a C or S personality rather than a D and I personality. In fact, maybe you can relate to this, but there are some days I am not sure who I am. Things get so chaotic either in life or in my own head, that I resemble more of a Picasso painting than I do some neat and tidy psychological description.
Have you ever had those days where you wake up and struggle to recognize the person looking back at you in the mirror? Days when you have to ask yourself, “Who am I? Where am I? Why am I here? I sure hope I don’t look as confused as I feel right now!”
It is often said in the world of business and entrepreneurship that, “It’s not about what you know, but about who you know.” There is part of that I know to be true in business, however, when it comes to the assurance of our salvation and the success of our spiritual life of faith, it’s far less about who you know and all about who knows you. Who knows you makes all the difference, both in this world and the world to come. Jesus said in Matthew 7 that on the Last Day of judgement there will be “many who say to me Lord, Lord did we not prophesy in your name, and cast out demons in your name, and do many mighty works in your name?’ And then will I declare to them, ‘I never knew you; depart from me, you workers of lawlessness.’” You see? Who you are makes all the difference, and who you are is all about who knows you.
There was an elderly man who was hurrying to his 8:00am doctor appointment. He wanted to finish his appointment as quickly as possible, so he could get to another appointment on time. The doctor asked what other appointment had him so anxious, and the elderly man said that every morning at 9:00am he goes to the hospital and has breakfast with his wife. The doctor asked about her condition and why she was in the hospital, and the man replied that for the past 5 years she has had Alzheimer’s and no longer knows who she is and doesn’t recognize him as her husband either. Both saddened and a little confused the doctor asked why he continues to go each morning if she has no idea who he is. The old man replied, “She may not remember who I am, but I still know who she is.”
You know friends, we all have those days when we find it difficult to remember who we are as the children of God. The temptations of this world, the lies of the devil along with our own brokenness and sinfulness can leave us stupefied at times and suffering from spiritual amnesia. However, even when we may feel anything but a child of God, and even when we may feel a thousand miles away from God, nothing has changed about how God sees us and nothing has changed about our standing before God as sons and daughters of the Most High. The assurance and security of our salvation comes not from how close we feel to God or how much we think we know Him. Our eternal salvation and identity as children of God comes from how faithfully close God remains to us and from the fact that He knows us and has declared us to be His own by grace through faith in Jesus Christ. It’s not about who or what you know, but about who knows you.
Time and again throughout Scripture, God’s Word reminds us that our hope and confidence of salvation comes from Him, from His grace alone and from His merciful love for us.
In our text for today from Psalm 139, it says:
O Lord, you have searched me and known me!
You know when I sit down and when I rise up;
you discern my thoughts from afar.
You search out my path and my lying down
and are acquainted with all my ways.
6 Such knowledge is too wonderful for me;
it is high; I cannot attain it.
For you formed my inward parts;
you knitted me together in my mother’s womb.
16 Your eyes saw my unformed substance;
in your book were written, every one of them,
the days that were formed for me,
when as yet there was none of them.
Colossians 2:9-10
For in Christ all the fullness of the Deity lives in bodily form, and in Christ you have been brought to fullness. He is the head over every power and authority.
1 Corinthians 6:19
You are not your own; you were bought at a price.
1 John 3:1-2
See what great love the Father has lavished on us, that we should be called children of God! And that is what we are! Dear friends, now we are children of God, and what we will be has not yet been made known. But we know that when Christ appears, we shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is.
1 Corinthians 8:3
If anyone loves God, he is known by God.
John 15:16 & 19
You did not choose me, I chose you. If you were of the world, the world would love you as its own; you are not of the world, but I chose you out of the world.
We must always remember that we are saved not by the strength with which we hold onto God, but by the strength with which He holds on to us. Jesus said in John 10:14-15, “I am the good shepherd. I know my own and my own know me, just as the Father knows me and I know the Father; and I lay down my life for the sheep.”
This is what faith is; believing what God has said about us, even when we feel like we don’t know ourselves. Faith is being sure of what Christ has done for us on the cross, even when and especially when we don’t know what to do for ourselves. Faith is knowing who knows you and trusting that what God has redeemed and marked as His own through the waters of baptism will in fact be and remain His for all of eternity. By faith in Christ my friends, you and I are His. We are the children of God.
Thanks for joining me today for another time of devotion in God’s Word. Remember, God has forgiven yesterday, is with you today and has already taken care of tomorrow. Amen.
