As I was preparing to lead a group through the first week of SHAPE, I couldn’t help but notice these words from Psalm 139: “You know me inside and out, you know every bone in my body;” (Click here to read all of Pslam 139). So God knows me inside and out? As I thought about those words I wrote in the margin “And God still wants to use me?”
Some will read these words and say “If God really knew what I am thinking, and really knew my thoughts, there is no way he could, or would, ever use me.” The thought of God knowing us that well brings reminders of all the evil thoughts we have rom time to time, our frustrations with other, our hatred toward certain people, or maybe our distrust of God. So do we need to be perfect to be used by God? I certainly hope not! If that were the case, God would have no use for me!
It is in instances such as this that I LOVE the cross and the forgiveness it brings! Jesus has this way of seeing our sin and because of the cross, working despite it. I am thinking of the story of the Samaritan woman at the well found in John chapter 4. Jesus was talking to a woman who had been divorced 5 times and was living with another man. Jesus saw the sin and addressed it. And through a conversation with this woman, she came to see that He was the Messiah.
Even in her sin, God met her and used her. She returned to her town:
“Then, leaving her water jar, the woman went back to the town and said to the people, ‘Come, see a man who told me everything I ever did. Could this be the Christ?’” (John 4: 28-29)
Jesus saw her sin, addressed it, and used her for his glory. Verse 39 tells us “Many of the Samaritans from that town believed in him because of the woman’s testimony, ‘He told me everything I ever did.’”
God knows us inside and out. How wonderful to think that we have a God that knows our thoughts and sees our actions, and because of the forgiveness offered at the cross through Jesus Christ, is able to redeem our thoughts and actions, and use us for his glory. It is my prayer that as I recognize my sin, I see the cross, and I know that God CAN and WILL use me! I LOVE the cross!
Psalm 139: “You know me inside and out, you know every bone in my body” and how wonderful it is that God knows me that well.
Doug Rogness
Congregational Life Director, West Campus
