KNOWING WHO WE ARE IN GOD

John 1:19-28

Many of us feel troubled, anxious, hopeless, and live far from God because we don’t know who really we are.

If we really want to experience the magnificent and amazing grace of God, then we need to know ourselves and understand how God sees us.

We are made for God and for God alone.

We are His masterpiece and His wonderful creations.

The basic understanding of ourselves is based on understanding deeply on God.

John’s understanding of himself 

When John the Baptist was asked “Are you the Christ?” he said no.

He said that he was the voice of the one crying in the wilderness; make straight the way of the Lord.

Even though John has a lot of followers and believed in him, he understood the truth of who really he was and what his role was.

Knowing God as He is

What we know about God develops us into a person of God.

It makes us humble.  V27 says “The thongs of whose sandal I am not worthy to untie”

Our encounter with God should always remind us of who we are.

When Moses encounters God at the burning bush, he removed his sandals as he was stepping on the holy ground.

Wherever the presence of God, it becomes holy because of God’s holiness.

Knowing God makes us Humble

One time a man climb up a coconut tree and wanted to end his life.

His concerned neighbors immediately called their community leader to talk to this desperate man that maybe he will change his mind. The community leader with diplomacy encourages the man to come down and offer his help but to no avail.

The community leader called in for their town mayor to take over hoping that his influence would change the mind of this hopeless man ready to end his life but still without success.

They became desperate that their last recourse was to call for their Parish priest to give him final blessings before this man jumped off the tree.

The priest came near the tree and without any words, he gave his blessings by the sign of the cross.

With fear and trembling, the man immediately climbed down the coconut tree.

All the people clapped their hands in surprise.

The curious town mayor approached him and asked “ Why you don’t climb down the tree when we asked you to do so while when the priest came without any words you came down immediately?” the man just said “ When the priest came, I was afraid when he gave a sign that says if you don’t come down, we will cut the tree”

Zacheus’s encounter with Jesus was a humbling experience for him despite his sins, Jesus approached him and asks him to come down from the sycamore tree to dine in his house.

Our knowledge of God should always remind us that we have to be humble in front of Him.

We should climb down from our sycamore trees.

We should leave the pedestals that make us proud, that give us the feeling that we are above the others.

We have to come down if we wanted God to dwell in us.

For God’s throne is in heaven but He also dwells in the heart of those who have lowly and pure hearts.

Knowing God Makes us a better person 

Our encounter with God will make us better people.

Jesus did not condemn Zacheus but He showed his passionate love and mercy for this man.

Jesus’ love for sinners was so visible in the encounter of Mary Magdalene when all the people wanted to stone her to death.

God doesn’t condemn us as He sees the better side of us.

His mercy prevails over our weary and stray hearts.

He always gives us a lot of chances to prove to ourselves that we are worthy of His love and compassion.

No matter what other people think about you, remind yourselves that God thinks better for you.

His love changes us to restore our dignity that was tarnished by our sins.

He doesn’t give up molding us to be the person he wants us to be as long as we allow Him to do His works in us.

Knowing God drives out our fear 

Knowing that God is with us, who can be against us?

It boosts our confidence that we have someone to rely upon. No matter if the world turned us down, God’s help is always at hand.

When fear is far greater than our belief, we begin to lose sight of what is really big.

Remember the story of David?

All the soldiers were afraid of fighting the giant Goliath.

What they can see was the bigness of this giant warrior. The courageous and brave soldiers were daily intimidated by his invitation for a fight every morning.

But David, small as he was compared to Goliath did not lose his courage.

The secret.

He remembers the times that God was with him when he fought the wild animals while tending his sheep.

He sees the bigness of his God rather than the bigness of Goliath.

In our daily lives, we may be intimidated daily by the so many difficulties that come our way and test our faith.

Focusing our eyes on small problems daily magnifies them into bigger sizes until we don’t see clearly the blessings behind them.

It becomes a Goliath that threatens us.

Knowing that God is always with us will give us the wisdom to use small things in our favor.

Fear blinded us to see that we are equipped to fight our daily struggles.

Knowing God makes us more generous 

God’s generosity should make us more generous as well.

We have to understand that what we received is more than enough to bless others as well.

When Zacheus experience the generosity of Jesus, Zacheus suggested that he will return back whatever he had taken from those he believed he cheated with.

     “Now He who supplies seed to the sower and bread for food will supply and multiply your seed for sowing and increase the harvest of your  righteousness”-2 Cor:10

We received more so that we could bless more and share these blessings with those who need them.

We should become the channel of that blessings rather than the bucket because a channel will never run out of supply.

God has given us more gifts not because we are serving Him but rather to equip us in our service.

We cannot beat God in His generosity.

We received it so that we don’t have an alibi or any excuses that we cannot give.

God’s generosity should be manifested by our generosity and let others experience this through our unselfish giving and sharing of what we received.

Remember that he who sows sparingly will also reap sparingly and he who sows joyfully will also reap bountifully.

To know and understand deeply who we are is to go back to our creator.

We are special. We are gifted. We are blessed because that is His will for us.

May your happiness be full,

Mikesendon