You have searched me, Lord, and You know me. You know when I sit and when I rise; You perceive my thoughts from afar. You discern my going out and my lying down; You are familiar with all my ways. Before a word is on my tongue You, Lord, know it completely.
- Psalm 139:1-4 (NIV)
Remember playing hide and seek as a child?
I always believed I had the perfect hiding spots where no one could find me.
Yet, I often ended up being the first one discovered.
I've since realized that we can't hide from God.
He knows us intimately—our hearts, our minds, our thoughts.
This can be intimidating at times, as we are imperfect humans and sinners, and our thoughts aren't always pure.
Thankfully, our God is abundant in mercy, grace, forgiveness, and love.
I have been thinking a lot of my friend and mentor Leon lately, so I wasn’t surprised to come across a conversation that we had in 2019.
He told me that I could share his words then, I don’t think he’d mind if I share them again.
“God has no limit in His understanding. God has determined, understood, and known all things that would or will occur. God knows now and has always known all things—and He is certainly not bound by the actions or concepts of man in regards to good and bad, in order to know what will take place next.
God is an all-powerful and all-knowing being, in control of both evil and good - regardless however, His will stands. This is an important component of the authority of God: God is in control of everything, both evil and good. God has decreed evil in that He knew that Man would choose evil according to his free will. God could have prevented man from sinning by not creating man with free will, by not placing the forbidden tree in the garden, by not allowing Satan to tempt Eve, or God could have simply elected not to create man at all. However, God did create the world as good, but decreed to create a world in which He would allow sin to enter, according to the free will and responsibility of man, knowing that He would work it together for His good in accordance with His perfect purposes (see Romans 8:28). Notice here that it says His good, not the good (or lack thereof) of man. Scripture reveals the sovereign hand of God in both good and evil as He decrees those things which come to pass:
Lamentations 3:37-38(NIV) — "Who can speak and have it happen if the Lord has not decreed it? Is it not from the mouth of the Most High that both calamities and good things come?"
Isaiah 45:7(NKJV) — "I form the light and create darkness, I make peace and create calamity; I, the Lord, do all these things."
Because we can run, but we can’t hide.
Once again, I am so blessed for having known Leon, for his mentorship all these years.
There is a reason why his words came to mind while preparing to write today’s verse.
I don’t know the reason now, perhaps I never will, but I still thank God for my friend, for his wise words, and for allowing me to share.
No comments:
Post a Comment
Please feel free to share your thoughts, but please also be respectful.