approved

The one who approves us already,

is the one who knows everything about us.

Whenever I'm asked what my deepest fear is, I can easily give it... I'm afraid of being known.

Late night mission trip conversations with groups of girls from youth group about what they're afraid of center around spiders and snakes. One year they turned to me and asked me by greatest fear, and my response effectually shut the conversation down. They had no way to relate...that they understood yet at their season of life.

Just this last week, a young man writing a book asked if he could interview me as he's taking a survey of as many people as possible to add to his research. One of the questions he asked was about my greatest fear, to which I responded, "Being known." But he's so used to hearing, "Being alone" that he didn't even hear me correctly. It surprisingly stunned him.

Being known can feel like facing an exam you aren't ready for. That you're sure to fail. Because if you really knew what was in there...

And it can even be less about a gory past, as it is just the yuck of what I know my own heart is capable of. But the Lord gently led me to a beautiful truth over this last week...

He has already examined me and He approves me.

In 1 Thessalonians 2:4, it says "...we have been approved by God to be entrusted with the gospel, so we speak, not as pleasing men, but God who examines our hearts."

The one who approves us already, is the one who examines us. And if that isn't enough, the very same word for examines also means to approve, to deem worthy, to recognize it as genuine after examination. He knows me better than anyone, and I have been approved by Him.

Because in Christ we can know we are already approved, we can minister to others out of the overflow of love and approval, not for love and approval (1 Thessalonians 2:8). And so live genuinely with who we are in Him.

Oh that we would allow this truth to sink deeper into our hearts! There is a love who gave everything for you, to have you, who wants you, who approves His children, so we never need fear being undone and completely known in Him.

Such grace. Having our hearts was worth the pain to Him.

"If having my heart was worth the pain
What joy could You see beyond the grave
If love found my soul worth dying for"
Hillsong United

And for those who still want to hide, may you know that this can be true for you too...

And Podo moved through the days in peace and wonder, for his whole story had been told for the first time, and he found that he was still loved.
Andrew Peterson, North! or Be Eaten