There are
times when a particular word hits me as if an arrow has just pierced through
every layer of self-protection and found the bull’s eye of my heart. Suddenly,
I am very thankful that Jesus taught, “Blessed
are those who mourn, for they shall be comforted.”[1]
The first time
I remember this happening was a couple of decades ago when the word “orphan”
blasted its way into my mind and confronted me with a painful characteristic of
the way I thought of myself. As I entered into the blessing of mourning, I was
comforted with a new experience of what it means to be a beloved child of God.[2]
In particular,
the Holy Spirit ministered to me through Jesus’ words, “I will not leave you as orphans; I will come to you.”[3] He
had to show me that I thought of myself as an orphan in order to assure me that
he was up to something quite different. While my orphan-mentality was due to so
many people abandoning me, he would not leave me as an orphan, but would come
to me in the fullness of the Triune’s love. Of all people, he would not be
ashamed to call me his brother.[4]
This morning, what
found the bull’s eye of my heart was the word, “known." It hit with a powerful sense of poverty, mourning,
hungering, and hoping. It was both familiar, and frightening. Familiar, because
it is characteristic of God to do things with only a word.[5]
Frightening, because it immediately took me into the heart-places where pain
lives, largely unthreatened, I should add.
Why would the
word, “known,” cause an immediate
reaction of hurt and hope? First, because the poverty of feeling known,[6] as
with all associations with “poor in
spirit,” is a blessing.[7]
Second, because feeling my impoverished soul-condition in this area of being
known leads to the hunger and thirst for the righteousness of being known, a
hunger and thirst that God has promised to satisfy.[8]
It hurts to
admit that I have experienced a deep, gaping heart-wound in this area of being known.
However, it immediately feels hopeful because God only blesses us with the
awareness of any poverty in our spirits in order to stir up the hunger and
thirst for righteousness he can satisfy.[9] I
can face the hurt knowing hope is walking with me towards a very rewarding
destination.
Here are some
of the Scriptures that ministered to me about this need and desire to be known.
First, on the negative side, was the reminder of what Jesus will say to many
people who are shocked that they are not among his sheep in the judgment. When
they appeal to all the things they thought they did in his name, his piercing
and hopeless indictment was, “I never knew you.”[10]
While it would
be quite natural to fear that this applies to me, I have received much comfort in
the certainty that my standing with God does not depend on anything I do.[11] I
will not be one of those surprised goats on the left side of the judgment seat,[12]
not because I am better than the ones who did all those pseudo-miracles, but
because my standing before God does not depend on my works, but on being saved
by grace through faith.[13]
Instead of
fearing that Jesus will ever say to me, “I
never knew you,” the hope God gives me in his word is that one day this
will be true for me, “For now we see in a
mirror dimly, but then face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know
fully, even as I have been fully known.”[14]
While I stand
in awe of the hope that I will one day “know
fully,” the overwhelming wonder today is the knowledge that, “I have been fully known.” I obviously
need to experience that more deeply and intensely, but it will never become truer. I have already been “fully known.” I am presently “fully
known.” I will always be “fully
known.” The variable that will grow from hope to fulfillment is that “I shall know fully.”
While there
are so many Scriptures that weave these thoughts into a much fuller and richer
tapestry of glory and wonder, I will end with this wonderful revelation: “But God's firm foundation stands, bearing
this seal: ‘The Lord knows those who are his,’ and, ‘Let everyone who names the
name of the Lord depart from iniquity.’”[15]
The Lord knows who are his, and is determined to make sure his orphan-minded
children know we are his.
I found it
quite interesting that there is a parallel between Jesus telling the surprised
goats on his left, “I never knew you; depart from me, you workers of
lawlessness,”[16] and telling the ones that he does know to depart from iniquity. It
is a simple contrast. Those who are not known by Jesus do not depart from
iniquity, no matter how many miraculous signs and wonders they appear to do in Jesus’
name. Those who are known and sealed by God do depart from iniquity in a
transformation that moves “from one
degree of glory to another.”[17]
From
the initial surprise of feeling my soul react to the word “known” in both hurt and hope, through the assurance that all God’s
children have been “fully known,” to
the clarification that those God has fully known “depart from iniquity,” I saw one more lesson in God’s work to help
me to know him.
God’s
word says, “let him who boasts boast in
this, that he understands and knows me, that I am the Lord who practices
steadfast love, justice, and righteousness in the earth. For in these things I
delight, declares the Lord.”[18] I feel like he made sure I would understand and know him better
today than I have ever known him before. It just took one piercing arrow
through the layers of self-protection into the bull’s eye of my heart. It feels
better now.
© 2014 Monte Vigh ~ Box 517,
Merritt, BC, V1K 1B8 ~ in2freedom@gmail.com
Unless otherwise noted,
Scriptures are from the English Standard Version (The Holy Bible, English
Standard Version Copyright © 2001 by Crossway Bibles, a division of Good
News Publishers.)
[1]
Matthew 5:4
[2]
Ephesians 5:1-2, among many others.
[3]
John 14:18
[4]
Hebrews 2:11
[5]
Matthew 8:16 is an example. Of course, Jesus’ designation as “the word,” makes
this all the more poignant and personal, since the Father created all things
through him (John 1:1-3). Genesis 1 shows the powerful creative work of God
that revolved around him speaking words. When he said, “Let there be light!”
there was light, simple as that.
[6]
Meaning, I have little experience of what it feels like to be known.
[7]
Matthew 5:3
[8]
Matthew 5:6
[9]
Matthew 5:6
[10]
Matthew 7:23
[11]
I’m not talking about understanding the doctrines of grace, but experiencing
the healing to a broken, works-based soul that still sometimes struggles to
believe such things can be true. I keep finding that there is grace greater
than my struggle to understand, so I am always delighted at how much I come to
understand and know when I quit struggling to understand and know!
[12]
Matthew 25:31-46 uses the imagery of sheep to represent God’s children, and
goats to represent God’s enemies.
[13]
Ephesians 2:8-9
[14]
I Corinthians 13:12
[15]
II Timothy 2:19
[16]
Matthew 7:23
[17]
II Corinthians 3:18
[18]
Jeremiah 9:24
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