God is Known

There is no shortage of stories in the world about what God has done for His people. 

We have, of course, the Bible, which is the Word of God. The things He wants us to know about the things that He's done. And it's important for us to read our Bible, to know these stories, to understand the way that God lives and loves in our world. There is no substitute for this; it's the only record we have of "In the beginning" to "It is finished" and into the already, but not yet. The Bible is absolutely essential. 

We also have our communities of fellowship. Together, we worship the Lord, pray for His goodness to us, and celebrate what He has done for us. Our fellowships are filled with testimonies - stories about what God is still doing in the world. There's nothing quite like hearing the words from the mouth of someone who shouldn't be talking to us right now, but here they are, by the grace of God. Nothing like hearing the gratefulness in the inflection of someone who knows exactly what God has done for them and how big of a thing it really is. Our fellowship is absolutely essential. 

But the greatest story you will ever hear about who God is is the one He is writing in your own life. 

Here's the challenge for most of us: we have read the Bible, and we know the stories. We have heard the testimonies, and we are encouraged by them. But if we're being honest with ourselves and with each other, so many of these stories that we hear and know make us go home into our quiet spaces at night and cry our eyes out. 

We know God is good, but why isn't He good to me? We know that our God is a healing God, but why am I still so broken? We know that God so loved the world, but why does it feel like He doesn't love me? 

As long as we only have the stories of God through other lives, we will never understand the love of God the way that we need to. 

We need a God who loves us. 

And this isn't blasphemy. It's not. All the way back in the book of the prophet Ezekiel, we see this truth playing out. In fact, the prophet himself speaks it (Ezekiel 28:25-26). God is doing all of these things in the world, all of these things to the peoples and the nations, all of these things for the peoples and the nations, and the prophet says that it will be when God brings His people home and restores them and redeems them that they will truly understand. 

His people will live in safety and will have homes and plant vineyards and be well while they see Him passing down His judgment on those around them (those sinners we talked about yesterday), and then they will know who He is. 

When they are living the kind of loved life they dream of, when God is providing for them, when they are safe and secure in a fallen and broken world. 

See, even if you're Israel, there's simply no substitute for experiencing first-hand the love of God. Even when you have the whole history of your people, the whole testimony of your ancestors, the whole witness of the not-His-people world, something changes when you are living safely in your own home with your growing vineyard and a hedge of protection around you. 

Something changes when God's story is your story. 

So open your eyes and find your story. Find His story. Figure out what He's doing in your life, and rejoice. 

For the Lord your God loves you.