Heart Tracks - Squandered

(Jesus said) I am not saying these things to all of you; I know the ones I have chosen." John 13:18

Chris Tiegreen has written that we can know Him in ways that no one else can. Can we stop our breakneck pace of life long enough to allow that to saturate both our minds and our hearts? Take a breath and contemplate just the beginnings of what that can and does mean. God, whose capacity to be known is infinite, tells us that we may each have a knowledge of Him that is held only by us. No one else ever has or ever will know Him in just such a way. That's an intimacy beyond words to describe.

We may know the characteristics of God by memory. Goodness, mercy, healing, wholeness, righteous, wise, almighty, and on and on to infinity. What He wishes for us to know and experience is that we can have a personal knowledge of Him in these that is given to us alone. No one else has known or experienced Him in quite the same way. We have a piece of His mind and heart unique to us. He has never given Himself to someone else like He has given Himself to us. What an awesome gift. What a divine privilege. Are we aware of that gift? Do we, are we squandering it?

The Apostle Paul, a man of tremendous intellect and spiritual power, had as his deepest desire "to know Christ, and the power of His resurrection." I think his second deepest desire was that those he ministered to would have that desire as well. Certainly all of his writings point to that reality. In fact, he said that he claimed to know nothing except "Christ, and Him crucified."

His Word says that we are "fearfully and wonderfully made." Can we grasp, even in a small way, that as He fashioned us, shaped us in creating us, that He put within each of our hearts, the potential to know Him as no other could? That among the sea of souls that are His, He has given the opportunity to know Him as none other can? What a gift. What a privilege. Are we realizing it?

No one knows our hearts like He does. No one knows the deepest needs of our hearts as He does. What I need is often not what you need at all, so He won't speak to us both in the same way. He deals with us unique to what He has created us to be. We have blundered terribly in expecting God to relate to all of us in the same way. Your salvation experience must be like mine. Your convictions must be my convictions. How you deal with sorrow, loss, failure, and more, must be as I would. None of this is so with Him. Where He knows He must give a hard word to us, He will. Where His gentle voice needs to be spoken, He speaks. And He will speak in a voice that only our heart can hear and receive. We say there is no one like Jesus. He says that's true, and for Him, there is no one else like us. Like you. Like me.

The ability to know Him as no other can; a blessed gift, and wonderful privilege. Are we squandering it? No one else will ever love us like He does. No one else can ever love Him like we can.

Blessings,
Pastor O