God knows you and He loves you anyway

1 Chronicles 17:18-19

What more can I say to you about the way you have honored me? You know what your servant is really like. For the sake of your servant, O Lord and according to your will, you have done all these great things and have made them known.

            The other night I was explaining to my husband the difference between a true friend and an acquaintance friend. I told him a true friend is one you can really be yourself around. One that knows your flaws, quirks, and weaknesses and loves you anyway. There is such freedom in those kinds of friendships because you don’t have to worry as much about offenses and being misunderstood. Your true friend really knows what you mean even if you say it wrong. They see and hear your heart and filter everything through who they know to be you.

            The morning after our discussion while doing my Bible study I ran across our verse in 1 Chronicles 17:18 where it says- “what more can I say to you about the way you have honored me? You know what your servant is really like.” I was especially struck by the statement that God knows what his servant is really like. He knows our past sins, our character flaws, how we treat our family, the stupid things we say and do- He knows it all and He loves us anyway. God knows what you and I, His servants, are like- and he chooses to honor and love us anyway.

It goes on to say that for the sake of His servant and according to God’s great will He has done all these great things and has made them known. Sometimes the great things he does for us are the daily details of our lives. Psalm 37:23 (NLT) says that, “The Lord directs the steps of the Godly. He delights in every detail of their lives.” God delights in everything about you. He cares about when you get up, when you go to work, when you spend time with your family- He cares about every thing you do. Sometimes it is easy to forget that God cares about all the details in your life. It is easy to think that when there are devastating natural disasters, people dealing with disease and sickness, loss of income, and all sorts of other difficult situations that God is too busy and his plate is already so full that He doesn’t have time to care about the good things in life. God in His omnipotence can care and love those hurting and still have strength and energy to care about the good and day to day things in our lives.

            Good friends are a wonderful thing to have. They are a gift and blessing from the Lord. We should try and be good to our friends, loving them, helping them, and making allowances for their weaknesses. There will be days though that the best of friends can hurt us, but we must remember that God is the best kind of friend. He truly knows our hearts and everything about us, and He loves us anyway. He loves us with an everlasting love on your good days and on your bad days, when you mess up and when you are walking in obedience. God knows you and loves you unconditionally warts and all!

Ephesians 4:1-3

Ephesians 4:1-3

Therefore I, a prisoner for serving the Lord, beg you to lead a life worthy of your calling, for you have been called by God. Always be humble and gentle. Be patient with each other, making allowance for each other faults because of your love. Make every effort to keep yourselves united in the spirit, binding yourselves together with peace.

                There are days at work where I think my job would be easy if it weren’t for the people. I can be having a great day and one rude person can come in and do or say something that can ruin my day if I let it. The Christian walk is really no different. Our walk with God would also seem so much easier if it weren’t for the other people.

                In today’s verse Paul asks us to live a life worthy of our calling. We are to live our lives in a way that we are an example of God’s love to those around us. To live set apart and holy lives. It is easy to live a holy life when we are sitting by ourselves reading our Bible and praying, but much more difficult when there are other people around, even other Christians.  It is easy to be kind, loving, meek, gentle, and patient when you are alone and spending time with only God, but it is much harder to do when the person who has hurt or annoyed you is right next to you.

                When we are around the people that hurt or annoy us it is tempting not to act like a person with a call of God on our lives.  When we are around those people we want to react in anger and be hurtful to them. I had a customer this week that tested me in this area. I was explaining (very sweetly I might add) to this customer a policy that we had. He got very gruff and in my face and told me that I would not follow the policy, but would do what he wanted me to do. Sometimes this particular policy can have an exception and I was going to tell him that if it were necessary I would try and get approval to do what he needed, but since he got rude with me before I could tell him it did not make me want to be helpful to him. In fact my first reaction was to say, “Watch me!” I of course did not say that. In fact I don’t think I had time to say anything before he took off out the door. My first reaction was to hurt back, not to be kind.

                God does not want us to hurt back when we have been hurt though. In Matthew 5, Jesus said that we are to love those who hurt us. He points out that anyone can love the lovely, but that we need to rise above and love those that are difficult for us to love.  God asks us instead to be humble and gentle.  He asks us to be patient with each other making allowance for each others faults. We all have faults, quirks, and things in our personalities that can be difficult for other people to deal with. Some things that bother me may not bother you. We need to remember that different people handle things in different ways and we need to remember to make allowances for that when we deal with each other.

                God wants us to put forth the energy to walk in unity with each other. Unity does take effort. We have to make allowances for each other because of our love for each other and our love for God. This week really look at your love walk. Are you living your life in a way that people see your love for them and for God?