Be KnownSample

It is so easy to get caught up in how others see us. We are quick to take on identities spoken over us: unqualified, unworthy, single, divorced, too many kids, no children..... I’ll let you fill in the blank. Jesus wants to show us how He sees us. It’s important, not only that we know what He says about us, but that we come into agreement with what He says.

We’re no longer going to identify with how the world has spoken our name. We’re going to see ourselves through the eyes of the one who knew our names and wrote them on the palm of His hands before we were formed in our mother’s womb. Your creator, who whispered your beautiful name into the world also whispers how He sees you. Beautiful, loved, worthy, created in His image, set apart, His friend, forgiven, strong, courageous, and confident.

Psalm 139:17-18 in The Passion Translation Bible says, “Every single moment you are thinking of me! How precious and wonderful to consider that you cherish me constantly in your every thought! O God, your desires toward me are more than the grains of sand on every shore!”

Have you ever picked up a handful of sand at the beach and let the grains slip through your fingers ever so slowly, watching them blow into the breeze as you released them? Their numbers are so vast we couldn’t even begin to count them. Can you even begin to list the thoughts your Heavenly Father has towards you as they hover in the breeze drifting back to the shore? What if you were to bottle up some sand, bring it home, and put it on a shelf? Would you be able to look at that bottle filled with tiny grains of sand and think of all the things Jesus would say about you? Probably not.

God never intended us to know or list all His thoughts about us, because if we knew them all we would be inclined to think that we don’t need to spend time in His presence. Jesus safeguards all those precious thoughts, and He speaks them over us little by little in the moments we need them the most. In your sacred, secret place. And it’s in His presence, in your secret place, that He gets to lavish His love over you and speak His promises over your life. He gets to remind you every day in His presence that He doesn’t create anything He doesn’t deem worthy of using for His kingdom.

In Luke 10:38-41 we read about two sisters, one who prioritized doing and the other who prioritized sitting at Jesus’ feet. In verse 41, “Jesus answered and said to her, “Martha, Martha, you are worried and troubled about many things. But one thing is needed, and Mary has chosen that good part, which will not be taken away from her.”

What the Lord wants us to understand is how to know when it’s time to be like Mary and when it’s time to be like Martha. Our time with Jesus is precious. It should be guarded and treated as such. When we make spending time at Jesus’ feet a priority, we begin to see the fruit of that time with Him. This fruit bears from the vine because we truly understand what it means to know Him and be known by Him.

Jesus, I ask that each day as I come into your presence you would teach me how to see myself through your eyes. I know that I’m fearfully and wonderfully made, help me to walk in those truths daily of who you say I am. I break off agreement with any identities I’ve taken on that don’t align with what your truth says about who I am. Amen.