Living Known

**This is the final article in my blog series of Being Known. You can catch Part 1 and Part 2 here.

What does it look like to live a life of feeling KNOWN by God? Living with an awareness of feeling known is a work in progress and not something I have mastered, not many people have.

There are a few people sprinkled throughout my life who exemplify a confidence in their relationship with God. How do I know? There is something different about their demeanor. They don’t follow the crowd, but have the courage to step up be who God created them to be. One friend who lives KNOWN, lives with a level of courage that creates an ability to focus on the big picture of God’s plan for her life instead of being overcome with details of the “how” or “why” in times of stress.

The Bible is one of God’s greatest gifts to His followers because it is full of examples of those who lived a KNOWN life before God. They weren’t perfect nor did they make all of the right decisions, some choices were pretty appalling, but overall they lived a life that proved God knew them and they felt KNOWN by Him.

One of those examples was King David. He was named “A Man After God’s Own Heart” for a reason. Before David became King, he was a lowly shepherd boy. When the prophet Samuel told the current king, Saul, that his reign over Israel was over, he said, “the Lord has found a man after his own heart”. David already had a relationship with God. Even as a shepherd, he lived a life KNOWN by God. His insignificance to his family was shown when Samuel came to anoint the next king. David’s family never called him in from the fields to see Samuel. All of David’s older brothers were presented to Samuel first, yet God was waiting for David to be brought in.

God was known by David and had already been preparing him for leading a greater flock of sheep. Even though David was given little to no significance by anyone in his life, he took is job very seriously and had the ability to keep his flock safe from lions and bears who tried to attack. His courage to fight off predators took him to the battlefields to fight a giant named Goliath. Without hesitation, David saw the big picture and knew what had to be done. Israel must be defended from its enemies because Israel belonged to God. David wasn’t worried about the size of the man before him or the fear of the army behind him. He was KNOWN by a God bigger than all of the issues of the moment. With God on his side, he had fought off the most fierce animals in the fields. With God on his side David claimed victory over Goliath before the first stone left his slingshot.

What would it look like to live like David, emboldened by his relationship with God and being KNOWN by Him? What would it look like if our kids walked into the school doors each day with confidence of being a KNOWN by a God who his bigger than any issue they will face? With one stone, the nine foot tall Philistine collapsed to the ground, defeated by a small boy KNOWN by a big God.

Want to read more about the story of David? Check out 1 Samuel 16-17.