"For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the Lord, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future. Then you will call on me and come and pray to me, and I will listen to you. You will seek me and find me when you seek me with all your heart. I will be found by you,” declares the Lord, “and will bring you back from captivity. I will gather you from all the nations and places where I have banished you,” declares the Lord, “and will bring you back to the place from which I carried you into exile.” Jeremiah 29:11-14(NIV)

Key reflections:

  • God is a mystery, but He is always there and doesn’t hide from us.
  • It is often in the difficult times that we get to know God more deeply and draw closer to Him.
  • Listen to this episode of Real Hope in the player above or wherever you get your podcasts.

Have you ever heard the phrase, ‘people don’t care how much you know, until they know how much you care’? Knowing about God is so very different to knowing God, as today’s verse says.

Knowing God involves our hearts, not only our minds. And the beautiful thing is, God doesn’t hide from us.

Yes, He is a mystery, but He doesn’t hide from us. In fact, He is with us, even in the secret places (Jeremiah 23:24). Those secret places may be the loneliest, most painful places we’ve ever been. In my experience, that’s where I’ve come to know Him the most.

… the reality is that often we come to really know Him in the moments when we desperately need Him, when there is literally nowhere else to go.

When hardships strike, there are always fresh layers of His grace, fatherly love, and healing to be found. Even though I’d rather just enjoy the good times and get to know Him over coffee and croissants, the reality is that often we come to really know Him in the moments when we desperately need Him, when there is literally nowhere else to go.

And perhaps the same can be said about God: now that we know how much He cares about us, we want to know everything He knows. We want to know Him even more deeply.

Listen to this episode of Real Hope | The Podcast in the player above or wherever you get your podcasts.


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Feature image: Photo by CanvaPro

Devotion written by Joni Boyd

Originally published as Knowing God – Knowing God is being known by God

Knowing God Series


Joni Boyd

Joni is a writer and Digital Media Coordinator at Hope Media. She is passionate about the power of stories to transform lives and brings that heart to her work in content creation and digital storytelling.

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