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Renee Swope

Encouraging and equipping moms to parent with God's grace and confidence.

(Week 2) To Be Known Is to Be Loved

If you’re reading via email, please click title above (“Known”) so you can read it to my website. This post includes a powerful video and a FREE download that won’t come through via email.

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From Chapter 2, A Confident Heart

“Jesus knew Sam’s  (the Samaritan woman’s) story and He knows yours. The Greek word for “know” is yada. It means a deep emotional experience; a bonding between two people when one truly feels the emotions of the other. Jesus knows your pain, fears, doubts, and disappointments. He understands your dreams and desires.

Although some of us feel uncomfortable that God knows so much about us, it is good to be known, to be listened to and not judged. Jesus is the only One who can meet our deepest needs to be accepted and delighted in simply because of who we are. We can offer nothing but our presence, and He will desire us just the same…

Christianity is the only faith that offers a relationship with the living God. We don’t just know about our God; our God wants us to know Him. We were created for that kind of relationship. He wants us to find lasting soul-security in knowing we are valued and pursued by the One who knows and loves us—the One who created our inmost being and wove us together in our mother’s womb (Ps. 139:13). Have you let the gospel of God’s grace move from your head to your heart, so that you know without a doubt you are known intimately and loved completely by God?” (p. 40 printed copy)

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Our word this week is  “Known”

Our verse of the week is: Jeremiah 1:5 – “Before I formed you in the womb I knew you, before you were born I set you apart…” (NIV)

This week’s video message is one that shows us we are known and loved.  Please click the arrow below to watch this video – all the way through. You’ll be so glad you did.

(from video script)

I WANT TO BE KNOWN
I want someone to look at my face
And not just see two eyes, a nose,
a mouth and two ears
But to see all that I am, and could be
all my hopes, loves and fears…

And YOU know me
You actually know me
all of me and everything about me
Every thought inside and hair on top of my head
Every hurt stored up, every hope, every dread
My past and my future, all I am and could be
You tell me everything,
You tell me about ME
And that which is spoken by another would bring hate and condemnation
Coming from Youu brings love, grace, mercy, hope and salvation
I’ve heard of One to come
who could save a wretch like me
And here in my presence, You say
I AM HE…   ( read full script here)

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Today’s Assignment:

  • Read this week’s memory verse (Jeremiah 1:5). Ask God to remind you all week that He knows the way you long to be known, pursued and loved!
  • Start or continue reading chapter 2. Remember, take your time and highlight or underline sentences that resonate in your heart.

Connect in Community:

What sentences in Chapter 2 are resonating most with you?

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Comments

  1. Hello Ladies!

    There were 2 statements or thoughts that really resonated with me in chapter 2. The first is that Christ invites us to receive of His perfect love. That is so encouraging to go to a place where there is a love that never disappoints. I will make His love my safe haven. The other statement was really life changing for me. It states: “As chidren of God we were designed to find our identity, our significance, and our confidence in Him” That put it all into perspective for me. I know now where to place my expectations. The word “designed” caused me to see that I was made to find those things only in Christ. Not in people, places or things. Not in people AND God – but ONLY in God. I know now that I am never to look for my value in anything under the sun. In that way, I will always be secure.

    God bless.
    Karen C.

    • “I will make his love my safe haven”. How glad I am to have not missed those words you wrote among all these many, many other wonderful thoughts! How silly am I to continue to chase the love of this world and be scarred by disappointment when it lets me down…the perfect love of my Abba Father will never fail. That love will be my safe haven…thanks for sharing!

  2. “God’s love is perfect so minde doesn’t have to be perfect. OH THANK YOU GOD! Help me live this out every moment. It is not what my heard or heart believes right now but I will believe this Truth. Thank everyone for the good posts. This is an amzing truthful chapter. Thank you Renee, for saying what we are all thinking. Ps. 139 also has new meaning to me because of this. If He loves me as the mess I am His “Thoughts toward me are VERY PRECIOUSE to me”!!!!!!!!! Thanks for the definition of Eternal life also!!!!

  3. That was an awesome video. I felt God’s love while listening to the words…what a truth to know that God loves us even when he knows who we are.

  4. This chapter is full of beautiful truths. I had to read some it twice to make it personal. So often in my Christian journey I have read the scriptures and listened to messages from my pastor without making it personal. I figured the love and acceptance was for other people and not me. I beleve every word I read, but I have not made Jesus’s love real for me. I grew up hearing that I would never amount to anything and that I was worthless. I still fight those thoughts. This whole chapter spoke to my heart, but if I had to pick one sentence that jumped out at me it would have to be , “He is waiting for you to stop, come up close, and turn your heart to listen to His.” (p. 37) It amazez me that He pursues me. The video was amazing too.Thank you Renee and all the prayer warriors who are praying for this study.

  6. Page 43
    The only way we’ll have a confident heart is if we move beyond knowing about God to knowing and relying on HIm–to depending on His Word with our whole heart, mind, and soul.

    Page 45
    We are not worthy of His love and we can never do anything to deserve it–but we are worth His love becasue He chose to give it to us.

    God’s love is perfect, we don’t have to be!

  7. I love this Bible study and can identify with many of the comments. One is getting it from my head to my heart. I truly want to believe all that God has for me no matter what. I let life take over and go from there. I don’t always take the time to go deeper with God and I really need to. I deal with the surface things ok, but not any further. Sometimes I don’t know how to go deeper – maybe it’s fear to find out what is there – I’m not sure.

  8. The video was great in that it brought to me how the stories of old are very real and prevelant now. It was not all that long ago that I was feeling very lost and disconnected with God. But renewing and becoming born again through Christ I know that my past is just that past and that I am known today and tomorrow as a Child of God and that I have been released from the pains and chains of the past. Thank you.

  9. “In the same way, He is there waiting for us in the midst of our imperfect lives, when our pain and failures confirm our self-doubts. He is there waiting for us when we’re going through the motions, aware of what needs to be done but unaware of how we’re going to do it. ” This is a reminder for me that I don’t have to work to earn God’s approval, the way I work for it to earn acceptance and approval from others. Sometimes I spend a lot of energy telling God about what is difficult for me, but He already knows. Instead of using that energy saying the same things over and over I can simply go to him and let him speak to me.

  10. My favorite passage from Chapter 2 is a short paragraph on page 37…”He invites you to come to Him to receive the perfect love He offers-love that cast out fear, love that is patient,and kind, love that keeps NO RECORD OF WRONGS. That is what He offered Sam, and that is what He offers you and me.” How many times does a frend or family member remind you of your past failures, or even take credit for bringing you out of that time in your life??? God doesnt keep a record….He is there when we are ready to give it all to Him, and He comforts, and teaches us with an unconditional love!!! I find that Amazing…..that he wants to love me, even when i slip up He is there to catch me, and correct me in His own special way. I want to stop doubting and being insecure. I am so glad that I decided to do this bible study, thank you Renee. I am praying for all the ladies in this study….

    • This is the second time today that I either was told by my group leader in my other class at church and reading your response about He is there when we are ready to give it all to Him, and He comforts, and teaches us with an unconditional love! Another truth I need to grab a hold of.
      Now I realize it is getting really late, am yawning, and it’s time I go to bed. Goodnight and may all of you have a peaceful night.

  11. I am a recovering alcoholic, 11 years sober. I got sober at the age of 22, so I have actually been in recovery longer than I drank. I still have such a hard time feeling like anyone knows the real me, that I can tell friends the real feelings and thoughts I have. I live with guilt and shame on a constant basis. I am a Christian, I believe Jesus gave me a second chance. Why is it that my feelings about myself are stil negative? Why am I still insecure? I really want to feel these things and I want people to know the real me. But I am not sure if I know the real me.

    • Christy,

      Sounds like False
      Evidence
      Appearing
      Real
      Hopefully this study will help you gain confidence to drop the masks of FINE and FEAR, are you still going to meetings? Thanks for the reminder it has been a while since I have been to one. Remember we have all been given a gift today.. the present. Thank God! and Jesus for forgiveness and today is what we got.
      I have to do a gratitude list today.. how about you. [email protected]

      • I do go to meeting but I go to Celebrate Recovery now, not AA. I got sober in AA though. I am really enjoying this book and study, I feel like my mind is being read.

        I actually am seeing a Christian Counselor too, I really want to get there, to quit wearing the masks. I seem at a loss on how to do this.

        BUT I am working hard at it…..hopeful the counselor and study will get me there!

        Glad to have met a fellow friend here!

  12. I love the sentence that says “He is waiting for you to stop, come up close and turn your heart to listen to His. You don’t have to pretend things are fine when they aren’t. He knows what is going on in your thoughts. Nothing could keep Him from wanting to be with you.” The thought that the God of creation wants to be with ME is amazing. He knows me from the inside out and knows all my weaknesses and insecurities. Yet He still wants a relationship with me. I want that relationship with Him!

    • Hi Linda! After I copmpleted my post I have looked back over other posts and I discovered that we chose the same sentence from the chpter this week. I am amazed by the thought that God knows all about me and still wants to have a relationship with me. What a wonderful truth to take in and think over….

  13. I have an intense fear of opening up to the Lord because growth is painful…and opening to the Lord means GROWTH…and I feel like I am opening my soul up to pain by growing in Christ. How twisted is that logic?! It’s been easier to sit in fear than willingly be the gold that is tested in fire. I’ve felt some of that fire…through the growth that panic attacks, anxiety, and depression have forced me through. Through friends and family walking away from me. Through church leaders letting me down. Through medical professionals letting me down. I wouldn’t wish that pain on anyone. I feel like I’ve been through enough pain to know how ignorant I am and how far I have to GROW/GO….and I’m terrified. I don’t trust people…not at all. Never enough to get to know me.

    I don’t feel that my struggles are more than anyone elses. I’m only being open about my personal fear. I’ve developed a very lonely, isolated cocoon that I have allowed myself to become miserably comfortable in.

    But I sat at my kitchen table tonight, by myself….I’ve moved often over the years (military wife) and have no friends where I am, so no one to do this study with….and told the Lord that I give up. I have to put that trust, hope and confidence into action. I have to give it wings to let the Lord take me…to lead me…to teach me. My way does not work. So if the Lord knows me….KNOWS ME….like this week’s verse tells me….then he has a purpose…then he has started a good work in me and he will see it through to completion.

    He did intend this verse for all of us….but he intended it for ME. He knows ME. Watching the dramatic reading on the website….I am humbled and touched to my soul. He included ME, right? I am not just a bit player in life….this is actually talking to me…I am actually set apart and known.

    • I am doing this study by myself also. If you want, you can email me and we can be friends learning to GROW/GO together in this study. My email address is [email protected]
      God bless you on this new journey.

    • After reading your post I feel that I can relate to some of your struggles. I have come to the realization that people are all imperfect and will let us down. Sometimes they let us down through our own unreal expectations or through their own weaknesses. Either way we are hurt. I will pray for you and if you feel led you can contact me at [email protected]. Life can be full of struggles, but we can always count on God to never leave us.

    • K
      I was a military wife for 23 years, and I know the feeling of nobody really knowing me. True friendships take time, and we were never in one place long enough to make real connections….. So I told myself. Isn’t it encouraging to know that God truly knows us? I am still learning to let people in even with a mountain of self doubt.

      • Teresa…if you feel open to this, my email is me.too117 We’ve walked in very similar shoes…as I was a military wife for 23 years as well. Real connections? It became so much harder as time went on. Oh, that’s a yahoo.com address.

        I have allowed myself to feel so insignificant that it’s a struggle to accept that God is actually talking to me in these verses. I have them on my bedroom wall…the first thing I see when my feet touch the floor.

  14. In 2012, I wanted God to give me a word for the year. At first when I was pondering and looking…I thought my word was going to be love. However, I kept hearing confidence. Then, I “stumbled” so graciously through the holy spirit unto your book A Confident Heart. I knew then what my word this year would be…”Confidence”. I just bought the book today and I am very excited as to what God is going to do in my life this year as I draw closer to Him and He builds my confidence in Him as well as myself.

  15. “God wants me to go below the surface by asking Him to show me why I want what I want. Then I can ask Him if what I want is really what I need.” I have struggled for years with not feeling “good enough” around my neighbors and friends and this is based on my comparison of myself to what they have (material things) that I don’t have. I’ve made some really bad financial choices most of my life struggling to get out of debt and most of this debt was due to trying to measure up to what others have. Now that I’m no longer going down that road and working towards getting out of debt, I resent what others can still get that I can’t have. It makes me feel not as good as them, therefore, I tend to cut myself off from them and have abandoned some friendships. End result has been doubt and insecurity within myself. I want so much for God to take me below the surface and understand why I want what I want. I want to want things that are important and I know those important things are not the things of this world!

    • I hope this book will be the answer that helps take you below the surface so that you and God can have honest conversations and healing can begin. Your story reminds me much of “Sam” — she carried resentment of the other women with her to that wall, (after all, they had husbands and status and each other as friends, while she was ostracized) but after encountering Christ, she shed that old life of pain and worry, freed to love Jesus and want what He wanted for her.

  16. Let’s not look back and wish we’sd done things differently. Let’s go beneath the surface with Jesus so He can show us places in our hearts that need His repair!! I love knowing that Jesus notices and cares enough to tell us that our hearts need repair.Then finishing up with, “being confident of this that He who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus. – Phil 1:6.

    He knows, notices and cares that we hurt and need help in our hearts then tells us that we can be confident that He will continue the good work He began in us until it is completed……

    So we can all know that if we allow Jesus to work His miracles…we can be confident and know that He will repair our hurts and we can live free of them. Awesome!!

    • PS…the video is sooooo good…..can’t wait to share it with our youth group!!
      Thank you for posting.

  17. Wow!!! The video was awesome! It seems Chapter 2 was writing for me. So many times I feel like “Sam”…I am divorced, my youngest was born out of wedlock, but no one is interested in why…I am a struggling single mom. Many Christian women cannot relate to me and don’t even try. I want to have a close relationship with a Christian woman who can help me be accountable and help guide me. Since I don’t have that, I turn to God because I know He is always there for me ready to listen and speak to me (if only I would listen more). Renee, thank you for doing this Bible Study. I need this!

    • Nina, I will be praying that the Lord will put a strong Christian woman in your path that would be able to encourage you in the faith and love you along the path. I understand the importance of having someone with whom you can share your heart, never needing fear whether you will still be accepted and loved.

    • Nina, I found a dear praying friend on a website one day when I was doing research for a medical problem which we both have in common. She and I have never met, we live on opposite sides of the United States, yet she had become a very dear girlfriend in Christ. I am 62yrs. young and my husband and I are raising three grandchildren. My children had drug problems and could not care for the children. We took them in and they have been a real blessing to us. I know some of what you are going through now. I would be more than pleased if you want an internet prayer friend and we could keep in contact that way. Just let me know and then we can share email addresses and get to know each other. God can and will work in your life if you will open the door for him to enter. My son just got released from prison, got a job and a place to live the first week he was out and now his parole officer is taking it all away from him because of what some other parolee has done. I need to watch God work in his life soon as the weather is too freezing for him to be homeless. Because of his crime he cannot live with us. It is two of his children that we are raising. I said all that to let you know God does care. I will be a friend to you if you will let me in.

  18. The sentence that really made me go WOW, that is exactly how I feel was, “Although we tell people we’re fine, what we really mean is that we are Frazzled, Irritated,Neurotic, and Exhausted”. I feel this way about alot of things in my life right now. I am struggling really bad right now at my job, I have never been so FINE in all my life!!! I feel like I am in prison and the only thing good happening is every two weeks I get a little reward for putting up with it. I am always FINE at home because it seems I never take time for me. However, I have to admit, this study is completely for me and I am doing something that my heart has desired for a long time, to build a solid relationship with my Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. I have longed to truly know who Jesus is and that time has arrived. I am very excited for every lady that has joined this study, your comments are incouragement to me.

    • Kriste~
      Thanks for your comments about work and home, It made me smile and laugh because I’m so there with ya sista!! It is the Lord workin on me that I would be up @ 4:30 am doing this study now. My husband is up pacing around woundering what is going on now!!

      • Lou, you just made me laugh, my husband came out of the bedroom last night and looked at me like I was crazy and said “why are you up”? Ya gotta love it. I have put so much time and energy into everyone else that it just freaks them out for me to withdraw and do for ME… not that they don’t want me too, it’s just out of the norm. I am so looking forward to what this is all gonna do for me too. I am using it as therapy and medication. Not to mention that I also joined Weight Watchers. Thinking I need an over all tune up, inside and out. You gotta be excited about it cause only good things can happen. Hang in there Lou, and let God work. Have a great day. Kristie

        • doin Curves myself and energy to go help out in my son’s class this am. I work night shift so it is not unusal for me to be up at that hour just not at home. Thanks Kristie

  19. That was a powerful video. “To be known is to be loved” touched my heart in a special way. God does know us from the crown of our heads to the souls of our feet. He loves us with all our stuff, imperfections, etc. But He wants us to know ourselves to look deeply within ourselves so that we can be healed from all those human conditions that bind us. We must love ourselves enough to be real which will heal us and free us to be real with ourselves as well as others. We hide because we don’t want anyone to know the truth which makes us a liar to ourselves, other and God. I know because I have been guilty of that. As I have gotten older and my relationship with God has grown I want to be known and loved but I want those who love me to love the real me – and those that know me to know the real me because I have found in my life that the reason I was not known and loved the way I wanted was because I was not being real with my self or others. But God loves me unconditionally as I am and those that really love us will also because if we put on with them one day we will be found out and that is where the hurt and pain comes from because we say those we love hurt us – but did we really know them or did they really know us???

    The Samaritan woman was in a lot of pain and it probabily pained her even more when Jesus told her everything about herself that she was hiding. But once it was all revealed – she wanted everyone to know, she felt free, her burden was removed because the truth was revealed. She was now known and loved by a man that was supposed to dislike her. God is so amazing.

  20. I have been having a hard time since last summer with negative feelings. It seems when I start the negativity everything just spirals down. I came into this new year asking for God to help me be more positive. A few weeks later I found that you were going to do a study on this book. I believe that the Lord led me to read and study this book. Although we are only on the second chapter, I can already tell that it is going to be a blessing and help in my life. Most of my life I have thought (as you stated in Chapter 2) that I have to be perfect to be loved and accepted. I know in my head this is not true, but I’ve had a hard time convicing my heart of that fact. I am looking forward to reading more. I love the title of this chapter – “Because God’s love is perfect, I don’t have to b!e”. Praise God!