To Be Known By God!

"We love because he first loved us."
(1 John 4:19)

This verse (along with many others throughout the Bible) teach us that knowing God is a matter of grace. In other words, our relationship with God is one in which HE takes the initiative. And this is how it must be. God in His infinite (read "unlimited and unlimitable") holiness is far above us. And we have forfeited any claim on Him and His favor through our rebellion and sin. So bottom line, we do not make friends with God - HE makes friends with us. Please take a moment and read this excerpt from J.I. Packer's wonderful classic, Knowing God:

This is a momentous knowledge. There is unspeakable comfort - the sort of comfort that energizes - in knowing that God is constantly taking knowledge of me in love and watching over me for my good. There is tremendous relief in knowing that His love to me is utterly realistic, based at every point on prior knowledge of the worst about me, so that no discovery now can disillusion him about me, in the way I am so often disillusioned about myself, and quench His determination to bless me. There is, certainly, great cause for humility in the thought that He sees all the twisted things about me that my fellow-men do not see (and I am glad!), and that He sees more corruption in me than that which I see in myself (which, in all conscience, is enough). There is, however, equally great incentive to worship and love God in the thought that, for some unfathomable reason, He wants me as His friend, and desires to be my friend, and has given His Son to die for me in order to realize this purpose. We cannot work these thoughts out here, but merely to mention them is enough to show how much it means to know, not merely that we know God, BUT THAT HE KNOWS US!" (Knowing God, p. 37 - emphasis mine).

Thanks for stopping by . . .

pj