It is an awful feeling to think that no one notices you or cares about you. Children from a very young age will do whatever they need to do to be seen and loved. From cradle to grave we want to feel that someone sees us, knows us, understands us and loves us. There is only One who sees us all of the time, who knows us fully and understands us completely and loves us perfectly.
O Lord, You have searched me and known me.
You know when I sit down and when I rise up;
You understand my thought from afar.
You scrutinize my path and my lying down,
And are intimately acquainted with all my ways.
Even before there is a word on my tongue,
Behold, O Lord, You know it all. Psalm 139:1-4
The Lord is the One who loves us totally for He made us to be in a love relationship with Him. We are the ones who have run from God, denied Him, hidden from Him and turned our back on Him. He loves us still and is still calling to each one of us to come back to Him. He knows our failures, He knows the very thoughts of our heart, He knows when we do not want to come to Him and yet He still pursues us with His love. He also knows how we will fail in the future. He knows the very words we will speak before they are spoken and yet He still wants us to know His great love. There is none to compare with Him.
How precious also are Your thoughts to me, O God!
How vast is the sum of them!
If I should count them, they would outnumber the sand.
When I awake, I am still with You. Psalm 139:17,18
Even though He thinks continually of us and we rarely think of God and do not pursue Him, He still loves us. It is to our own loss that we do not turn to Him. However, when the pain in life is so great then we will think about God. God understands our pain and our suffering. God so loved us that He sent His only begotten Son, Jesus Christ, to suffer and die for us, that we might know His great love for us.
For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish, but have eternal life. John 3:16
Jesus Christ suffered more than any man and He suffered for us. He knows what it feels like to be despised and hated. He knows the feelings of rejection and pain. He knows what it is like to be hurt for no reason. People would hide from Him because He was so unliked and disrespected.
For He grew up before Him like a tender shoot,
And like a root out of parched ground;
He has no stately form or majesty
That we should look upon Him,
Nor appearance that we should be attracted to Him.
He was despised and forsaken of men,
A man of sorrows and acquainted with grief;
And like one from whom men hide their face
He was despised, and we did not esteem Him. Isaiah 53:2,3
Jesus Christ took our sorrows. He bore our griefs. Those who knew Him thought that He had issues, when, in fact, He came to take our issues and afflictions away through His death. He was pierced through for our sins and He was crushed for our “turning our backs” on God and wanting to go our “own way” and “do our own thing”. All of our sins, shame and guilt were laid on Him on the cross, although He had done no wrong nor was any guilt found in Him.
Surely our griefs He Himself bore,
And our sorrows He carried;
Yet we ourselves esteemed Him stricken,
Smitten of God, and afflicted.
But He was pierced through for our transgressions,
He was crushed for our iniquities;
The chastening for our well-being fell upon Him,
And by His scourging we are healed.
All of us like sheep have gone astray,
Each of us has turned to his own way;
But the Lord has caused the iniquity of us all
To fall on Him. Isaiah 53:4-6
He never defended Himself nor did He blame us. It was for our sins that He suffered and experienced the wrath of God so that the wrath of God could be turned away from us. Jesus Christ wanted us to see God, to know God, to understand God and to experience the love of God. Jesus Christ went to the cross because He saw us and our great need for a Savior and He knew we needed a Lord to be in control of our life. He also knew that we needed to understand that He was a loving God who loves us with a sacrificial love and that He knows our every need and desire before we even ask Him. Jesus Christ went to the cross because He wanted us to be in a love relationship with Him. He took our place and our punishment for our sins so that we would be blameless and righteous before God and could live in His love forever.
These will go away into eternal punishment, but the righteous into eternal life. Matthew 25:26
Jesus Christ did everything for us except He can not choose for us. Love is a choice and we must choose to receive what He did for us. When we cry out to Him then we will experience His salvation and we will be set free from the things that we are in bondage to. Often, it is not until we are in pain and suffering will we turn our face towards Him. When we cry out to Him and turn towards Him then He hears our cries, He sees our pain, He knows our suffering and He understands our needs. However, not does He just hear, see, know and understand but He acts on our behalf. He saves us and sets us free. He saves us from ourselves and our own destructive thoughts and actions and He sets us free from our bondage when we can not set ourselves free. He restores us and heals us. He refreshes us and gives us life. He also gives us a future which is far better than we could ever imagine. He becomes our Lord and our Savior and comes to live within us.
…and they cried out; and their cry for help because of their bondage rose up to God. So God heard their groaning; and God remembered His covenant with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. God saw the sons of Israel, and God knew them. Exodus 2:24b, 25
When we cry out to God then God hears. The Lord remembers what Jesus Christ did for us. The Lord sees us and He knows and understands us. We must be seen to be known and understood and loved. The amazing thing about God’s love is that not only does He hear, see, know and understand us but He allows us in His great mercy and grace to hear Him, to see Him, to know Him and to understand Him. All of this happens when we come into that love relationship with God. It all begins when we cry out to Him.
See how great a love the Father has bestowed on us, that we would be called children of God; and such we are. I john 3:1a
When this great love of God is bestowed on us then He gives us a pure heart that allows us to see Him.
Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God. Matthew 5:8
When we come to Him and receive His gift of forgiveness then He also becomes our Great Shepherd and we can hear Him.
My sheep hear My voice, and I know them, and they follow Me; John 10:27
When we come to know Jesus Christ in a personal way then we discover that there is nothing that compares with knowing Him and we will even count everything to be loss rather than lose the joy and privilege of knowing God.
More than that, I count all things to be loss in view of the surpassing value of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and count them but rubbish so that I may gain Christ, Philippians 3:8
When we become born again into God’s family through Jesus Christ, not only do we hear Him, see Him, know Him but we can also understand Him. Knowledge of God is understanding and the Holy Spirit opens our heart to understand God.
And we know that the Son of God has come, and has given us understanding so that we may know Him who is true; and we are in Him who is true, in His Son Jesus Christ. This is the true God and eternal life. I John 5:20
Finally, it is only when we come to know and understand who Jesus Christ is that we see that there is salvation in no one else.
And there is salvation in no one else; for there is no other name under heaven that has been given among men by which we must be saved. Acts 4:12
Christianity is not a religion but a relationship with Jesus Christ. Religion is man trying to reach God and religion or any other religious leaders can never save anyone. Jesus Christ is God reaching down to all of mankind and offering salvation and forgiveness to any who will receive Jesus Christ. For this reason, no one but a true Christian can have the assurance of the salvation of their soul and eternal life. God gives that peace only to those who know God through Jesus Christ.
And the testimony is this, that God has given us eternal life, and this life is in His Son. He who has the Son has the life; he who does not have the Son of God does not have the life. These things I have written to you who believe in the name of the Son of God, so that you may know that you have eternal life. I John 5:11-13
Instructions To A Young Life 