Knowing God - Psalm 38:9,88,13,15

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Your Name is KNOWABLE

Use this day, O Lord, to remind me that you are not distant,

helping me instead to know you more personally.

Do you know God in your heart and not just know about him with your head?

 

O Lord, all my longing is known to you.

I groan because of the tumult of my heart.

I am like the deaf, I do not hear.

But it is for you, O Lord, that I wait;

it is you, O Lord my God, who will answer.

Psalm 38:9,8,13,15

 

Some of the Psalms pour out of the darkness. David longs and groans from the midst of his tumult. His heart is aching and he can't hear any stirrings of hope.

 

Have you ever been there? Even for a season?

 

From his head, David says essentially, "I know that 'God ... will answer.' Therefore, I resolve in my head to 'wait.'" But his heart ... his heart is weighing him down. Actually it's the circumstances that are weighing him down, and it's his heart's response to the circumstances that is leaving him groaning.

 

Yesterday, we said that happiness is circumstantial and that joy transcends the circumstances. That's the same message today: Don't let your life be defined by circumstances -- even if they are dark. Rather, let hope, peace, and devotion -- which transcend circumstance -- define your days.

 

And if it's just your head that says, "God is close, I know it, I've been told it, I've seen it once before," then that's a start. Just pray with you head like the man in Mark 9:24, "'Lord, I believe; help myunbelief!' Help the truth that I know in my head to sink down to my heart. Help me to know you are close ... and to sense your presence more fully today."  

 

In Christ's Love,

a guy with a big head

and a heart like the Grinch

( ... hopefully growing several sizes today)

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How??? How do you transcend circumstance? How do you help the heart keep seeing and believing? How do you quiet the mind so the heart can hear and know?