Psalm 139

This psalm speaks to the intimacy of our relationship with God.

He KNOWS us....in the deepest and most intimate ways possible. There are no shields or walls or barriers that we can put up to hide things from Him or to try to protect ourselves from Him. It doesn't work. He sees right through us....our strengths, our weaknesses, our victories, our shortcomings, our desires, our sin, our passions, our joy, everything about us. He created us, He delights in us, He works in us, and He LOVES us....no matter what He sees in us.

I know that we can't fully grasp this concept and I think that we don't even try sometimes. We miss out on so much because we don't really know what that love is like. We don't experience love like that in most of our earthly relationships. The kind of love where someone can really SEE you for who you are and who Jesus created you to be and intimately loves every part of you.

It is really scary to feel that kind of love from Jesus but His is PERFECT. At least it's scary for me...it makes me want to run sometimes or just shut down. It's even scarier to feel that kind of love from someone else because our love is not perfect and is guaranteed to fall short of Christ's love for us. But if we don't take the risk, then we will miss out on so much.

We spend so much time trying to protect ourselves, trying not to get hurt, trying not to look bad and expose our weaknesses. Meanwhile, we are putting up walls that block us from truly loving one another as brothers and sisters in Christ, as husbands and wives, as family, as friends. But that is all Jesus wants us to do.

That's the key to life. Love. Love crosses all boundaries, it breaks all the rules, it surpasses all knowledge and understanding. That is how you breakthrough into people's hearts...is with LOVE, the kind of love that you could only know because Christ loved you first.

139:1-3 - "Lord, You have searched me and known me. You know my sitting down and my rising up; You understand my thoughts afar off. You comprehend my path and my lying down"

139: 7 - "Where can I go from Your Spirit? Or where can I flee from Your presence?"

This morning during worship, I could actually feel Jesus pursuing me. I felt weak and broken but He made a point to let me know that He sees me and He loves me. I think that for so long I didn't want to be truly seen by anyone but now...I DESPERATELY want to be seen and known by Jesus because that is the only thing that satisfies. His love sustains me.

But allowing Jesus in isn't the end of it....then He wants us to allow others in. He wants us to bare our hearts to other people...to surrender ourselves and let down our defenses to let others into our lives and our hearts. It's RISKY...but its worth it and the fruit is so great! At the same time, He wants us to pursue others like He pursues us and show them that we LOVE them. The only way that we can truly and fully love people is if we do take down our guards and show them who we really are.

Lord, help me to see and know the people around me. Help me to look past myself and see their hearts as You see them so that I can love them as You do.

Love crushes any stronghold.

139:17 - "How precious are Your thoughts to me, O God! How great is the sum of them! If I should count them, they would be more in number than the sand!"

139:23-24 - "Search me, O God, and know my heart; Try me, and know my anxieties; And see if there is any wicked way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting"

That is my prayer.