“People of Israel, listen! God publicly endorsed Jesus the Nazarene by doing powerful miracles, wonders, and signs through Him, as you well know. But God knew what would happen, and His prearranged plan was carried out when Jesus was betrayed. With the help of lawless Gentiles, you nailed Him to a cross and killed Him. But God released Him from the horrors of death and raised Him back to life, for death could not keep Him in its grip.” (Acts 2:22-24 NLT)
We understand intellectually that God knows everything, thus, enabling Him to see, interpret accurately, and respond to every detail of our lives. He sees what we physically do, of course, but He also sees more clearly than we ever will, WHY we do what we do – the true motivation behind every decision we make, every word we speak, and every thought that crosses our mind.
There are certainly positive and negative ways to respond to that knowledge. We can cower in fear and conclude: “He knows everything about me. What’s the use of trying to be good or serve Him faithfully? He already knows I’m going to mess up, I might as well just go ahead and do whatever I feel like doing!”
That’s certainly an option, but it’s a fatalistic disaster. It’s essentially to sentence ourselves to death and hell based on our inability to save ourselves. Here’s the truth – we’ll NEVER be good enough to satisfy the strict law of God, only Jesus, the only perfect Man who ever lived, could do that. That’s why we put our trust in Him and His righteousness, not in our own ability or goodness.
When we correctly understand and respond to the Lord’s ability to see every detail of our lives, it results in encouragement, not discouragement. Why? Because He knows our heart! He knows our strong desire to always and only walk in harmony with His will and purposes for our life. When we fail to live up to the standard of holiness to which He calls us, it should enable us to see Him more clearly, trust Him more implicitly, and depend on Him more fully to protect us from what caused us to fail in the first place.
Failure is not final when we see our fallenness in its proper context. We’re growing, maturing, developing as a child of God and that progress never stops until our heart stops. As long as we’re on this earth we’ll be under the Holy Spirit’s supervision, and we’ll be subject to His correction. Yes, He sees us when we fall and fail, but He also sees us when we’re struggling and in pain, and when, by His grace, we rise triumphantly in Him.
Dr. Tony Evans gives us insight when he writes: “God sees every time you are wronged. Leave it in His hands. He will vindicate or restore you when you put your trust in Him.” The appropriate response whether we’re hurt or the one doing the hurting, is trust. Trust in the Lord grounds us in the reality that we are fallen and capable of hurting others, while at the same time capable of being hurt by someone else.
It’s part of the deal of being a human being, but to brush either scenario off as irrelevant is to misunderstand God’s investment in us and His observations of us. He watches us, not to catch us in a moment of weakness, though He does see that, He keeps a close eye on us to protect, nurture, and express His love for us.
Not unlike a loving parent keeps a close eye on their toddler (or teen for that matter), we do it ideally out of love, to help prevent a danger or mistake that could be tragic. Yes, God sees everything, but always with an eye for comfort, healing, and restoration when necessary.
Food for thought.
Blessings, Ed 😊
Walking With Jesus 