journey onWord with us

Last Sunday was Father’s Day.  I am continually reminded, that while I always want to be the best dad, there are still times when I fall short of my expectations. I remember one less-than-stellar dad day when I had a cell-phone conversation with my daughter that, shall I say, wasn’t fair to her. Fortunate for me she’s a good forgiver, so my follow-up call and apology were accepted.

Yesterday (6/21) was our daughter’s birthday, and an occasion of another dad–daughter moment.  It wasn’t a less-than-stellar dad day … more like a momentarily scary one. We’ve had a ritual for many years where I call my daughter at the exact time she was born. It’s fun, humorous and sentimental all at the same time. But yesterday she didn’t answer (and she knew I was calling).  For the first several calls, it didn’t affect me. Eventually, I became a bit unsettled based on our tradition. In my head, I knew everything was fine, but my emotions were a bit distracted.

Recently, I have been doing a study on God’s all-knowing nature.  Yesterday I was reminded that God knows all about my momentary emotional turmoil. He knew what happened. He knew my thoughts and concerns. He knew everything about the situation; just as He knows all about your situations and thoughts right now!

David, in one of his beautiful psalms, provides us a clear understanding of God’s knowledge concerning our grumpiness, our thoughts … our everything!

God, investigate my life; get all the facts firsthand. I’m an open book to you; even from a distance, you know what I’m thinking. You know when I leave and when I get back; I’m never out of your sight. You know everything I am going to say before I start the first sentence. I look behind me and you’re there, then up ahead and you’re there, too—your reassuring presence, coming and going. This is too much, too wonderful—I can’t take it all in!
Psalm 139:1-6 (MSG)

Can you accept the fact that He knows what you are thinking before you think it, and He knows what you are going to say before you say it? Without a doubt, God is all-knowing and omnipresent. Our struggle is that we give assent to these great truths, yet often live on a path parallel to them. If the Creator of the universe who gave His Son for our salvation already knows everything, doesn’t it make sense that we would want to continually intersect our lives with His design?

It’s easy to agree with that rhetorical sentence, but when we struggle with thoughts, attacks by Satan, real pain and various other stresses, we often move away from or stop short of God’s plan. Too quickly, we can find ourselves speaking with harshness, thinking negative thoughts, asking why and simply running our lives on a parallel track from His purpose. But He knows everything!

My Father knows before I “go grumpy” and when I get unsettled with worrisome thoughts. He knows our thoughts and what we’re going to say even before we speak it. In spite of how we drift and often blow it, He cares (beyond our comprehension), He understands (even when we don’t understand ourselves), and He is willing (with His gentle hand of grace) to meet us at our point of need. No matter what is happening in your life right now, give it all to the Father. He already knows all about it, so why not relax and rest in the fact that our all-knowing God will guide you through what He already knows is happening! Amen!

PS: My daughter had inadvertently (I hope) set her phone to ‘do not disturb’ when dad was dialing her … but God already knew that.