Reference

Studies from Proverbs
Understanding Emotions Part 3 ~ Hope, Joy & the Need for Self-Control

Studies from Proverbs

In the Christian life, we talk a lot about our need to know God. It is vitally important. If you’re going to be in a relationship with anyone, you need to get to know them. If we’re going to relate to and walk with God, we need to continually grow in knowing Him. But sometimes, our need to grow might overwhelm us. As we’ve talked about understanding our hearts since Christmas, we have discovered there is so much to learn about ourselves from God’s perspective.

So I want to begin today with some assurance from another direction. It comes from theologian J.I. Packer who wrote a little book called Knowing God way back in 1973. But even though the book is about Knowing God, Packer himself identifies something that’s more important than knowing God.
“What matters supremely, therefore, is not, in the last analysis, the fact that I know God, but the larger fact which underlies it—the fact that he knows me. We are inscribed on the palms of his hands according to Isaiah 49:16. We are never out of his mind. All our knowledge of him depends on his sustained initiative in knowing us. We know Him because He first knew us and continues to know us.