Allowing God To Fully Know You

We are at the end of January 2024. Each year when January is coming to a close, I wonder how many people have kept their New Year’s resolutions so far. In a study done by Fisher College of Business, only 9% of Americans complete their resolutions, 23% quit by the end of the first week, and 43% make it through the month of January. When we are striving to hear God’s will for our lives so we can see Him make a way in 2024, we are on an ongoing journey where when we fall off the bandwagon, we can easily get back on. It is a process that is fluid in our every day and through this process, even when we stumble, we can still grow closer to Jesus as we flow through it. As we steady ourselves through the practices of placing God first, sitting quietly with Him, having faith that He can make a way, and allowing Him to fully know us, we hear Him more clearly and see His character in a new way.

On this last week of January, I want us to focus on opening up to God and allowing Him to fully know who we are. Psalm 139 is one of my favorite passages in the Bible. It tells us that God searches us and knows us. He perceives our thoughts from afar. He knows what we will say before it even comes out of our mouths. He created our inner most beings and knitted us together in our mother’s womb. We cannot go anywhere He is not. He knows us inside and out. So, my question is, if God knows everything about us why do we try to hide things from Him?

Part of growing closer to God and hearing His plan for our lives, is allowing Him to fully know us. When I say this, I mean that we are completely and utterly honest with Him. He can handle the nasty thoughts in our heads, the shame we feel of past mistakes, the selfish heart that sometimes leads our actions, the worldly desires that often come first in our lives, and the pride that hurts so many around us. Not only can He handle these characteristics we carry around, but He already knows about them. Hiding them from a God that knows all is impossible.

We try to hide them for two reasons, we think He will not love us anymore if we admit our faults to Him or we think if we don’t admit them, they can’t be true. We think we can just brush them under the rug, and they will disappear. The fact of the matter is that we need to admit them to God for our own sanity. He does not need us to admit them, the only thing He asks us to do is repent of these thoughts and actions. We need to openly admit them to Jesus so that we can grow closer to Him.

I’m going to use my sweet husband as an example. Our family recently made a large purchase so we have tightened up our budget so that we will not get ourselves into a bind financially. We have been doing really well with our budget this month and have been very proud of ourselves. My husband went hunting on Saturday and that evening He walked in with his shotgun like he always does. I could have thought nothing about it. I could have continued watching my show as I just assumed he was cleaning up after a day of being in the field. Well, he came and sat down beside me and told me he had bought a new shotgun. This of course was not in our budget to purchase. He did not have to tell me about this purchase, but he did because we are not a couple that keeps secrets from each other. We keep an open line of communication so that we can continue to grow closer together in honesty, trust, and loyalty. When we admit our faults to God, it keeps an open line of communication with Him. Our open communication begins to build trust, our trust begins to build our faith, our faith brings us to sitting quietly with God, and then we find ourselves placing Him above everything else. Do you see how every aspect leads to a relationship with God that is solid and unbreakable?

We are all searching to be known and loved. We search for greater self-understanding and self-acceptance. God is the only One who can satisfy that deep longing in our hearts. Through the relationship we build with Jesus, we will find out who we truly are, and we will be fully known. As you come to God in your quiet time, ask Him to search you. Ask Him to know and test you, and to know your anxious thoughts. As He searches you, He will reveal things you need to change. He will guide you through these changes and lead you to righteousness and everlasting.

As you open up to God and learn to hear His Words more, you will feel an overwhelming sense of joy. He will fill all your empty spaces with joy that only He can bring you. We can rejoice in the fact that we are fully known and loved, and that God is making a way through all our impossible circumstances. Nothing is impossible with God, with man it is, but not with God.

“For now we see indistinctly, as in a mirror, but then face to face. Now I know in part, but then I will know fully, as I am fully known.” — 1 Corinthians 13:12

“Delight yourself in the Lord and he will give you the desires of your heart.” — Psalm 37:4

“For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are My ways higher than your ways, and My thoughts than your thoughts.” — Isaiah 55:9

Digging Deeper:

Ready Psalm 139. What comforts you in that passage?

What are you trying to hide from God?

How can you open up yourself to God so that you build on your relationship with Him?