Known

 Before I formed you in the womb, I knew you.  Jeremiah 1:5

Jeremiah 1:5 is such a beautiful verse. So beautiful that I can't even begin to unwrap all that is found in this short exclamation from God. There is a deep security, love, and safety to be found there. There is a sense of personal worth. There is the sense, the reality of being created, formed, by a loving, almighty God. Created with a purpose in mind. A purpose He will fully bring to pass....if we but do but three things: Believe, Trust, and Obey.

We humans find it easy to reject what we can't explain. I don't pretend to be able to fully explain or understand an infinite God with my finite mind. But I can believe what He says. What He says about Himself and what He says about me. I also have the testimony that I have found Him to be true to all that He has promised in His Word. Not once has He failed me. I have entrusted myself to Him, and as the old hymn goes, through many dangers, toils, and snares, I have already come, but in all of them, He has brought me through stronger and more whole than before I entered into them.

The apostle Paul wrote of discovering not only truth about His God, but intimate knowledge of Him as well. It moved him to say that such knowledge was to wonderful for him to even put into words. How is God, who has formed billions upon billions of lives since the dawn of creation, able to focus on me, and all that comes into being me, while also doing the same with every other life He has created? I don't know how, but I know that He does.

I have written in my prayer journal, "He doesn't simply meet us at our place of need, He lives there." I don't remember if that came from my own thoughts or anothers, but I know it is so. I know that wherever and whatever I am moving towards, He is already there. I know that I can be taken unawares, but that He never can be. I know that chaos can surround my life, but that He is the Lord over all chaos. I know that no matter how unsure I may be of myself, He is sure. He knows me, far better, deeper, and wider than I will ever know myself. I know that He formed me and knew me even before He formed me. He knows the way I take, He is the Way I take. As I said, I can't explain it all, but I will go on believing, trusting, and obeying the One who knows me. The One who has always known me. The same is true for you. Will you believe, trust, and obey Him too?

Blessings,
Pastor O