“And then I will declare to them, ‘I never knew you; depart from me, you workers of lawlessness.’”
— Matthew 7:23 NIV
“In failing to confess, Lord, I would only hide you from myself, not myself from you.”
— Saint Augustine
“To be known by God is our highest privilege; the deepest folly of man is to flee from the eye of God.”
— R.C. Sproul
One of the primary things that leads to divorce between a husband and wife is a lack of healthy communication. A lack of healthy communication will lead to a lack of knowing and being known, which ultimately leads to little to no shared joy between the husband and wife. Marriage experts say when a relationship lacks joy, disconnection is inevitable.
In the same way, one of the primary things that leads to a Christian feeling distant from God is a lack of communication and confession with God. This leads to a lack of God knowing the Christian and a lack of the Christian knowing God, which finally leads to little to no joy of the Lord in the life of that Christian—ultimately making them weak. The scriptures make it clear that the joy of the Lord is our strength (see Nehemiah 8:10). When we are deficient in His joy, our walk often becomes the accumulation of our best efforts to follow Him. We quickly become more aware of how good we’re being, forgetting that Jesus never asked for us to be good in the first place. What He asked for was our heart, our trust, and access to know us—in other words, everything.
Christianity was never meant to be about all that you did, are doing, or can do. If the highlight reel of our Christian life is full of our worst or best moments, we will quickly become burned out. But if the highlight reel of our Christian life is full of all that Christ has done for us, then we will grow up into Him like never before.
God is not asking us to try and be better people; He is not consumed with trying to get you to do more charitable acts in the name of Jesus. This sounds backwards, but Jesus doesn’t desire that we start achieving more for Him if we are not first known by Him. The reason for this is because when we aren’t first known by Him, we unfortunately become more aware of what we are doing for Christ than what Christ did and is doing. Our best achievements will be a hundred times more fruitful when we do them from a place of first being known by Him.
What God truly desires is for us to become fully aware of what Jesus did on the cross and in the tomb, so our life becomes a byproduct of all that He did. Our best efforts, our best acts, and our best days will always pale in comparison to the effort, act, and day of Jesus Christ on the cross at Golgotha. On that cross, Jesus expressed that all we had tried to do as humans wasn’t enough, all we would continue to try and do would never be enough, but that all He was doing on our behalf would always be enough for those who would humble themselves to allow it to be enough for them. What Jesus did was enough, is enough, and will always be enough.
When we are able to realize this, it creates great liberty in us to no longer look at our efforts as good enough but to simply live in response to what is enough already—Him! And when we are already satisfied in Him before we do anything, then we will never feel disconnected from Him or not enough in His eyes because of what we are doing. We will be free to walk forward from the place of enough as our starting point rather than working hard to try and get to enough through our own actions. Understanding this will alter the way we work our job, parent our children, function in relationships, think about money, possessions and status, and most importantly, connect to God.
The problem is not that we aren’t doing enough, or don’t know enough; the problem is we aren’t known enough. How can God impart His joy (strength) to our most dry places if we never let Him know about them? The solution is to step into vulnerability with God as quickly and often as possible; tell Him everything you feel, hate, love, are frustrated by, and hurt by. John the Baptist stated that keeping with repentance was a key way to bearing fruit in our walk. Repent and confess on a daily basis! Let God see and know everything. This keeps you knowing God and God knowing you, which leads to more communication, more joy of the Lord, and a healthier connection to the “author and perfecter of our faith” (Hebrews 12:2).
Concluding Prayer:
Lord, thank you that you want to know me and for me to know you. I open my heart to you completely, Lord. I want to be known by you in a deeper way than ever before. I want to open up to you in every area where I have hesitated to let you in. I confess that I have a tendency to find my sense of worth from what I do rather than what Jesus has already done. Holy Spirit, will you help me begin living from what Christ has done first, so that my actions flow from that knowledge. Amen.
Discussion Questions:
- Does being known by God seem like an accessible source of life or a mystical far off idea?
Why?
- When you hear the word confession what comes to mind and why?
- James 5:16 and 1 John 1:9 both link confession to healing and forgiveness, two things that Christ died to purchase for us. Does your opinion of confession align with this biblical view?
- How can you protect confession as a life giving act in your walk with Christ?
- What is one thing you can begin to do on a daily basis to step into being more known by God?
Song to help you enter into worship: Known By You by Gateway Worship
Encouraging message/testimony to fuel your faith: Teen’s Shoulder Healed by Jesus on Livestream
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