To Be Known By God


Will Pannell / Tuesday, January 10th, 2017

This last week I was reading in Galatians. Paul reminds the Churches in Galatia (Galatians 4:9), “now that you have come to know God, or rather to be known by God…” they should not turn back to the worthless principles of this world. I paused for a minute and reread that verse several times. “or rather to be known by God.” That’s odd. I was taught from a very young age, God knows everything about you. He created everyone and knows everything about everyone. How then can there be a moment we can come to be known by God? My mind immediately went to Matthew 7 where Jesus told His disciples,

“Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but the one who does the will of my Father who is in heaven. On that day many will 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.’ ”

To know God is not as important as being known by God.

Both words here for ‘know’ come from the same word in the Greek; ginosko. Used in a wide variety of ways, ginosko is the most basic word for ‘know’. It’s used throughout the New Testament for everything from, I know 2+2=4, to how a husband (intimately) knows his wife. And this makes sense. There are degrees of knowledge to knowing God. Some have heard His name. Some think they have an impression of God based on bad experiences with Christian. Some devoted followers of God really know Him.

Our relationship to God is more similar to our relationship with other people than we often realize. If I meet someone at work and don’t want to know them, I don’t. And they don’t know me. They may stalk me on Facebook (don’t pretend you’ve never done that to someone, we all have), but they don’t really know me. God knows about all of us. He knows more about us than we know about ourselves. But if we do not want to be intimately known by God, He will respect our decision.

The greatest thing about God is how He provided a way for us to know Him and be known by Him. The truth is though if we don’t want to be known by God, it is our choice. Scripture shows us, it’s not how much we know about God, it’s how much we allow ourselves to be known by God.

So let me ask you a question, how much have you opened yourself up to be known by God? Have you just cracked the door so you can have a conversation? Or have you opened the door? Is He still standing outside? Or have you invited Him in for dinner? Do you invite Him in when you need something and send Him away after? Or do you let Him see you at your best as well as your worst? Are there aspects of your life you have kept from God? Or do you let Him see you at your lowest and most desperate times?

Take time and pray. Ask God to reveal areas you have kept from Him and for help to reveal those areas to Him.

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