Prayer and Knowing That God Knows You

PRAYER OF CONSECRATION

Wake up, sleeper, rise from the dead, and Christ will shine on you. 

Jesus, I belong to you.

I lift up my heart to you.
I set my mind on you.
I fix my eyes on you.
I offer my body to you as a living sacrifice.

Jesus, we belong to you. 

Praying in the name of the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit, amen. 

Matthew 6:5–8

“And when you pray, do not be like the hypocrites, for they love to pray standing in the synagogues and on the street corners to be seen by others. Truly I tell you, they have received their reward in full. But when you pray, go into your room, close the door and pray to your Father, who is unseen. Then your Father, who sees what is done in secret, will reward you. And when you pray, do not keep on babbling like pagans, for they think they will be heard because of their many words. Do not be like them, for your Father knows what you need before you ask him.

The year was 1988. The place was Memphis, Tennessee, and the surrounding nine state region. We were about to witness the advent of an amazing technological advance we take for granted today. I remember my first encounter of it like it was yesterday. I was in college at the time at the University of Arkansas (aka the Harvard of the Ozarks). On that day I made a routine telephone call to my father, who was in his home in Dumas. As he answered the phone he didn’t say hello. His first words, spoken immediately and in a loud and excited voice: “Hey John David!” 

I was dumbstruck. How on earth did he know it was me? 

I asked him how he knew. In pure amazement, he said, “It says your name on the screen of the phone.” 

Yes, this was the first day of the release of the technology we know as “caller ID.” 

I remember thinking in those early days of the advent of caller ID—this must be what prayer is like. 

The second I say, “Our Father,” he doesn’t say, “My son.” He says, “John David!” 

The great miracle of miracles is not that we know God. It is that God knows us. And the more I live the more I think this is what salvation by grace through faith actually is in its deepest essence—knowing God knows me—and knowing because God knows me that God loves me. And knowing God loves me not because he has to love me, which is only tolerance, but because he made me. Indeed, fearfully and wonderfully he made me; a little lower than the angels he made me. God doesn’t love me in spite of me or despite me but because of me and because of him. God loves me like a Father because I belong to him as a son. And yes, I do not deny that I am a child of wrath deserving of hell because of my membership and participation in the rebellious human race who turned and turns away from God because of its self-inflicted broken nature. This only makes the love of God more amazing and gracious and profound and a pure gift. 

And how do I know this? Well, I don’t know it because of cosmology, theology, philosophy, or mythology. I know it because of history. I know it because it happened.  

For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him may not perish but may have eternal life. (John 3:16)

He sent his one and only Son to seek me out and find me; to forgive all my sin, to pay my debt, to reconcile me to God, to cleanse me of every spot and stain of sin, to robe me in his righteousness, to crown me with his glory and splendor, to put the ring of his seal of favor on my finger, to hold and behold and desire and delight in and over and through me—to stand in the water so I could hear the words spoken over him into the deepest place in me; in my name, “John David, you are my son, my beloved, with whom I am well pleased.” 

As I say, “Our Father,” the caller ID turns into an extravagant embrace. I hear those words every single day as I meet with God and every single time it changes me. As that water seeps through my skin it changes me. As I know God knows me completely and accepts me profoundly just as I am, then I can completely and profoundly accept myself just as I am. And I have discovered along the way this is the only way I can change—not so I will be known and loved but because I am known and loved. The magic is the way this compels me to know, love, and completely accept other people, without conditions or caveats. Because if this is true for me it is true for them too.  This, my friends, is a supremely powerful reality that can change everything for a person. 

Now, here’s the best part. All I have just said is true for you. 

All of this is what it means to become and be a righteous person whose prayers are powerful and effective. 

This is why I say prayer is the lifelong process of becoming a peculiar kind of person who learns to exercise a particular kind of power for the good of the world and the glory of God. 

THE PRAYER OF TRANSFORMATION

Lord Jesus, teach us to pray. 

I receive your righteousness and release my sinfulness.
I receive your wholeness and release my brokenness.
I receive your fullness and release my emptiness.
I receive your peace and release my anxiety.
I receive your joy and release my despair.
I receive your healing and release my sickness. 
I receive your love and release my selfishness. 

Come, Holy Spirit, transform my heart, mind, soul, and strength so that my consecration becomes your demonstration; that our lives become your sanctuary. For the glory of God our Father, amen.

THE QUESTION

Our Father has caller ID. How does that encourage you? Do you know God knows you? Are you growing deeper in this gifted awareness? 

THE HYMN

Today we will sing the hymn, “O How I Love Jesus.” It is hymn 153 in our Seedbed hymnal, Our Great Redeemer’s Praise.

For the Awakening,
J. D. Walt
Sower-in-Chief
seedbed.com

Subscribe to get this in your inbox daily and please share this link with friends.