Know That You Know!

I John 1:3-5

We know that we have come to know him if we obey his commands.  The man who says, "I know him," but does not do what he commands is a liar, and the truth is not in him.  But if anyone obeys his word, God's love is truly made complete in him.  This is how we know we are in him. 

Today’s Reading: Matthew 11

Was John the Baptist doubting who Jesus was? And poor Thomas has taken the blame all these years for doubting Jesus. I will have to say that John was in prison and had not been witnessing all the things that Jesus had been doing, so maybe he does have a better reason to doubt a bit. My personal opinion is that John knew who Jesus was, but just wanted to verify what he already knew. Regardless of John’s or Thomas’ reasoning behind their doubts, we can never doubt who Jesus is. Although we have never physically walked with or seen Jesus face to face, we have the benefit of the stories in the Bible. With the lessons that we learn from his Word coupled with the spiritual guidance that he gives us daily, we have to know that we know Jesus and who he truly is---there is no other choice!

I think about many people of today when Jesus said, “we played the flute, but you didn’t dance.” Isn’t that what is happening today? Jesus is calling people and they are not listening, he is playing the music that leads to heaven and people are dancing, but they are dancing to a different song. We have to start listening more closely to what Jesus is saying and stop listening to what people are saying. He is our guide and Satan will do what ever it takes to keep us from listening to his song. Just as people talked about John because he did not eat and drink, and Jesus because he did eat and drink, people will talk about us no matter what we do, good or bad, right or wrong. Knowing that I will never please all men and that men will say things about me no matter what I do, I would rather people say things about me because I am living for Christ than not.

I love to read the words of Jesus as he prays to his Father. In this prayer Jesus is saying that God is revealing things to the ones who do not seem very wise to the world, but it is those little children, the ones who acknowledge that they know nothing without God, that they can do nothing without God, those people who fall down on their face and humble themselves before our Lord that he reveals himself to. I find that when I let go of what I think I know and give everything that I have to God is when he speaks to my heart---it is then that I feel like my wisdom deepens, maybe not by worldly standards, but by Godly standards. Verses 28-30 have to be my favorite part of this chapter. Jesus is telling us to just depend on him, give him everything that we have on us, everything that we know, everything that we long for, and he will take it upon him and make it all well for us. I picture Jesus taking all of our junk and changing it into what we need and giving it back to us after he has touched it. He wants to take not just our heavy burdens, but our light ones too, he wants everything. Our rest comes from him. I have found that no matter what I do, I can’t ever get enough done so that I am caught up with things. I have come to accept that my life is not ever going to be less busy, I will never have everything in order, I will never catch up and be ahead for the next day---it just doesn’t work like that and I am finally ok with that. Why? When I finally realized all this, I just gave it all to God and said I can only do what I can do in a day, but what I can do everyday is give everything to God and make sure the first thing that I give him is myself. The next thing I realized is that this is not a once in a lifetime decision, it is truly a daily decision that I have to make everyday and when I don’t, it makes my day miserable, but when I do make that decision to die to myself daily, oh what a better day that becomes. Even when things go wrong, I can still smile, because I know that I know that I know who is really in control of my life and who is trying to cause me trouble. I can smile and say thank you Jesus for the blessings and for the wisdom to not let the troubles of this day make me waiver from the path that you have placed me on.
I know that I know!

With Much Love and Blessings!