THE GOD WHO KNOWS US

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In Christ, Mark

The scriptures. May God bless the reading of His holy word.

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. You hem me in behind and before,

and You lay Your hand upon me. Such knowledge is too wonderful for me, too lofty for me to attain.

Where can I go from Your Spirit? Where can I flee from Your presence? If I go up to the heavens, You are there; if I make my bed in the depths, You are there. If I rise on the wings of the dawn,

if I settle on the far side of the sea, even there Your hand will guide me, Your right hand will hold me fast. If I say, “Surely the darkness will hide me and the light become night around me,” even the darkness will not be dark to You; the night will shine like the day, for darkness is as light to You.
 

Psalm 139:1-12

This ends this reading from God's holy word. Thanks be to God.

How many times have we sinned and felt like we got away with it because it happened in secret, with no witnesses?

Our devotion today is meant to convict us and warn us that there is no sin that goes unnoticed.

This is because we serve a God who sees everything we do. Indeed, no one knows us like God because He knows our every thought, every word we speak, and every action we take. All are within His sight.

David understood this fully as he penned these opening verses to the 139th Psalm:

You have searched me, Lord, and You know me. You know when I sit and when I rise; You perceive my thoughts from afar.

Yes, we serve a God who knows us fully. We are under His constant surveillance but I wonder about this:

Do we really feel the weight and pressure this should bring?  Do we feel the massive accountability we have before God to live for Him in righteousness every second of every minute of every hour of ever day He blesses us with?

The truth is that there is nowhere we can hide from God. There is nowhere to hide from His assessing and no place where we can conceal our sinfulness.

Do we really get this? Do we get that God sees all that we do in life?

If we truly did, then I think we would have the necessary motivation to keep our sins in check.

So how can we possibly change the way we live so that everything that God sees will be pleasing and favorable in His sight? How can we live as nearly as possible to the perfect righteousness our Father expects?

As Christians, maybe we need to turn to Jesus who sought to teach us how to ward off temptations and cause Satan to flee. Look first at this passage from Matthew, Chapter 4, and then a reinforcing scripture from Ephesians, Chapter 6:

Then Jesus was led by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil. After fasting forty days and forty nights, He was hungry. The tempter came to Him and said, “If you are the Son of God, tell these stones to become bread.”

Jesus answered, “It is written: ‘Man shall not live on bread alone, but on every word that comes from the mouth of God.’”

Then the devil took Him to the holy city and had Him stand on the highest point of the temple.

“If you are the Son of God,” he said, “throw yourself down. For it is written:

“‘He will command His angels concerning you, and they will lift you up in their hands, so that you will not strike your foot against a stone.’”

Jesus answered him, “It is also written: ‘Do not put the Lord your God to the test.’”

Again, the devil took Him to a very high mountain and showed Him all the kingdoms of the world and their splendor.

“All this I will give You,” he said, “if You will bow down and worship me.”

Jesus said to him, “Away from me, Satan! For it is written: ‘Worship the Lord your God, and serve Him only.’”

Then the devil left Him, and angels came and attended Him.  Matthew 4:1-11

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Finally, be strong in the Lord and in His mighty power. Put on the full armor of God, so that you can take your stand against the devil’s schemes. For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms. Therefore put on the full armor of God, so that when the day of evil comes, you may be able to stand your ground, and after you have done everything, to stand. Stand firm then, with the belt of truth buckled around your waist, with the breastplate of righteousness in place, and with your feet fitted with the readiness that comes from the gospel of peace. In addition to all this, take up the shield of faith, with which you can extinguish all the flaming arrows of the evil one. Take the helmet of salvation and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God.  Ephesians 6:10-17

Through these scriptures, we first see that even Jesus was tempted in life. What separates Him from us is that He rebuked Satan and the temptation of sin, something we fail miserably in doing.

So what made the difference? Why could Jesus resist and reject Satan while we can’t?

Well, the easy answer would be that He was God in human flesh and could resist because He had power and authority over all things. A perfect God could never ever be tempted.

I guess we could say this and just leave it like this: Jesus is perfect and we’re not so we can’t help ourselves. But that would be a severe cop out, I believe, and I say it in light of the Ephesians passage which carries the instruction about putting on the full armor of God.

You see, God in Jesus Christ could stand on His own against Satan in His own power but we can’t possibly do likewise. This is why we have to depend fully on the Lord and His mighty power for we can only withstand the attacks of Satan when we have His power within us. When we allow that to happen, then and only then will we be donning the full armor of God and able to fight Satan as Jesus did.

How did Jesus battle the evil one?

He used the word of God.

Look at each time Jesus was tempted. In every instance, He used the word of God to counter Satan’s attempts at temptation. In other words, He masterfully swung the sword of the Spirit (referring to the full armor of God) and in doing so, He showed us what we need to do as well.

This is why daily communion with the scriptures is so critical. We need to arm ourselves with the only weapon we have to fight against Satan. If you don’t know the word of God, then you will be walking out onto life’s battlefield against your spiritual enemy with no way to defend yourself and that will lead to Satan having the victory every time as he sucks us into sin.

And God will witness it all.

Friends, living in righteousness isn’t impossible so please don’t believe that lie. The God who knows us is the same God who longs to lead and guide us into righteousness and holiness, and apart from the sin that He hates so very much. And He’ll do it through His word and the power of His Holy Spirit living and dwelling within us.

My prayer for all of us today is that we continuously arm ourselves with God’s word and Spirit to ensure that the victory is the Lord’s each and every day. When we do so, we’ll take daily steps toward knowing God as well as He knows us.

Amen.

In Christ,

Mark

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