journey onWord with us

Sunday was Father’s Day, and I was reminded that, while I always wanted to be the best dad, there were times I fell short of my expectations. I remember one less than stellar dad day ten years ago when I had a cell phone conversation with my daughter that, shall I say, wasn’t fair to her. Good news is she’s a great forgiver, so my follow-up call and apology were accepted.

Upon returning to my office that particular day, I had an issue to handle and started a phone call with an attitude. The call ended fine, but I was convinced that my responses needed to be more in line with what I believe. Maybe you can relate! Often, I am drawn back to reality while spending time with friends and witnessing real pain, not just the petty irritations of a grumpy old man. God understands when we are grumpy … and when our pain is real and deep. We can all be thankful for His forgiveness, patience and grace.

David, in one of his beautiful psalms, provides us with a clear understanding of God’s knowledge concerning our pain, 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 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 too often live on a path which is only parallel to them. If the Creator of the Universe who gave His Son for our salvation already knows everything, doesn’t it make sense 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. Quickly, we can find ourselves speaking with harshness, thinking negative, angry thoughts, asking why or simply running our lives on a parallel track from His purpose. But He knows everything!

My Father knows before I go grumpy, and when you and I have deep hurts. He knows our thoughts and what we are going to say even before we speak it. Despite 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 anyway.