We live in a world where we are a number. We have a social security number and a driver’s license number. When we buy things, a company assigns us a customer number. Any individuality we have is attached to the number. If a company or the government wants to know anything about us, they look at the details attached to our number.
That means that it’s possible for us to slip through the cracks. If nothing about us is outside the norms, then we really are just a number. We often hear talk of “going off the grid.” What we mean is removing ourselves from any way an entity can track us. We won’t use credit card numbers, bank account numbers, or any other number that allows someone or something to know who we are or where we are.
Are we sometimes tempted to think that God feels the same way about us? Do we feel that we are just a number to God? With billions of souls on the earth, what are the chances that God really knows me? When I add my prayers to the tens of millions that are happening at any given time, what are the chances that God hears me with undivided attention?
Sometimes we play lip service to God’s ability to know us, but in the back of our minds, we ascribe our limitations to Him. Is it possible that sometimes we feel like we are just a number to God and if we lay low, we can fly under His radar?
That’s not the God I read about in the Bible. The one whose ways are not our ways, but higher than our ways. Listen to what the Bible says about God knowing us:
“Are not five sparrows sold for two pennies? And not one of them is forgotten before God. Why, even the hairs of your head are all numbered. Fear not; you are of more value than many sparrows.” (Luke 12:6-7 ESV).
Jesus, who is God the creator, tells us that He knows every sparrow He has created, and He even knows every single strand of hair on every person He has ever created. I have no clue how many billions of souls God has created since Adam and Eve, but His infinite mind knows every hair stand that He created on each of them.
When we pray to God, He knows who I am. He knows me. Not because I am famous or because I garner special attention. He knows me because He made me. He knows my name. We are not a number, not one of billions. We are one who He knows. We never slip through the cracks or fall off the grid with God.
“But if anyone loves God, he is known by God.” (1 Corinthians 8:3 ESV).
Someone estimated that there have been between 75 billion and 100 billion souls that God created since Adam and Eve. If so, He intimately knew every one of them. He knew every strand of hair on every person. He can do that because He is not a man. He is God. Another person estimated that there are 200 billion trillion stars in the universe and,
“He determines the number of the stars; he gives to all of them their names.” (Psalm 147:4 ESV).
We struggle to find names for our children, don’t we? Yet God knows every one of the stars He made, and He has given each of them names, all 200,000,000,000,000,000,000,000+ of them.
So, when we pray to God, we need to understand that when we do, God is listening to us. He’s not distracted by everything else going on with Him. He hears my prayers. He knows my name. My God knows me.
And the same is true when we want to hide from Him. Just as Adam and Eve learned, there is no place to hide from His presence. Just as we are more than a number to God, neither can we make ourselves anonymous to Him. We cannot fall off the spiritual grid with God. Listen to how David put it:
“Where shall I go from your Spirit? Or where shall I flee from your presence? If I ascend to heaven, you are there! If I make my bed in Sheol, you are there! If I take the wings of the morning and dwell in the uttermost parts of the sea, even there your hand shall lead me, and your right hand shall hold me. If I say, “Surely the darkness shall cover me, and the light about me be night,” even the darkness is not dark to you; the night is bright as the day, for darkness is as light with you.” (Psalm 139:7-12 ESV).
Whether we like it or not, my God knows me. To those who love Him, we should take great comfort in this. To those who love darkness, it should be terrifying to us. One day we shall see Him face to face. When He looks into the books that will lay open before Him, it will not be to look up who we are. He knows that. It will be the record He shares with us. The books will be our evidence that He knew us all long. We will see the things in ourselves that He sees in us through the books in heaven that are written.
The books are evidence that He truly sees us and knows us. That we don’t fall through the cracks or off the grid. We cannot slip unnoticed into heaven or be sentenced unjustly to eternal punishment. When we see Jesus face to face, we will be looking into the eyes of the one Who knows everything about us, including every strand of hair He made on our body.
He will know our thoughts, our actions, and our words. He will not confuse us with someone else. He will know us then because He knows us now. This is the God we serve. We need to always remember that our God is a God who knows me. He always has and He always will.
And we should take tremendous comfort and strength in this in this truth.
In the spirit of the political season, I thought I’d perform my own poll this morning:
Q: What do you fear most for you and your family today?
A- Inflation
B- Crime
C- Immigration
D- Foreign Affairs
E- Climate Change
F- Healthcare
G- God
“The end of the matter; all has been heard. Fear God and keep his commandments, for this is the whole duty of man.” (Ecclesiastes 12:13 ESV).
One day,
God will give me a home I did not build
Feed me food I did not grow
and clothe me with clothes I did not make.
One day, God will take me from poverty and make me rich beyond my imagination.
One day, I will look back to this life and wonder why I ever entertained the idea of sinning against my God.
“Brothers, I do not consider that I have made it my own. But one thing I do: forgetting what lies behind and straining forward to what lies ahead,
I press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus.” (Philippians 3:13-14 ESV).
As I continue in my daily Bible reading, I am in the book of Ezekiel. Something I read today helped me understand a phrase that Jesus said a lot:
“Indeed, in their case the prophecy of Isaiah is fulfilled that says: “You will indeed hear but never understand, and you will indeed see but never perceive.”
For this people’s heart has grown dull, and with their ears they can barely hear, and their eyes they have closed, lest they should see with their eyes and hear with their ears and understand with their heart and turn, and I would heal them.’
But blessed are your eyes, for they see, and your ears, for they hear.” (Matthew 13:14-16 ESV).
Having ears but do not hear and eyes but do not see.
Some believe that God will prevent people from hearing and seeing despite free will. But listen to what Ezekiel says. It helps to set it in context:
“Son of man, you dwell in the midst of a rebellious house, who have eyes to see, but see not, who have ears to hear, but hear not, for they are a rebellious house.” (Ezekiel 12:2 ESV).
When we do not hear though we have ears and do not see though we have eyes, it is because we are rebellious people. If we have a heart set on rebellion against God, we will not hear or receive the Word of God. Though we have eyes, if our heart is set on rebellion, we will not see the message.
Jesus preached to people with eyes and ears, knowing they would not hear or see; but not because they couldn’t or because God prevented them. It was because they had no intention of seeing or hearing what Jesus was teaching.
If we are set in our rebellion, we will not see or hear the message of the Gospel. It will sound foolish, and we will scoff at the message. To see with our eyes and hear with our ears, we must have a heart ready to submit to God.
May we never be one who God allows to believe a lie or one whose heart and conscience turn to stone. May we be people who see and hear because we have tender hearts ready to submit to Him and His message.
Snapchat is an interesting platform. You can post something on it, and it is automatically deleted after a certain time.
While there may be harmless ways of using this tool, don’t let it lull you into a false sense of safety from God.
Be careful what you choose to share. Anonymity only exists among men. Even a deleted Snapchat may come back to haunt you one day when it really matters:
“For God will bring every deed into judgment, with every secret thing, whether good or evil.” (Ecclesiastes 12:14 ESV).
While I am catching up on the news this morning,
Getting Ryder ready for school,
Planning what I will do today,
And getting ready for a trip to Canton with my parents tomorrow,
Angels surround the throne of God, singing praises to Him,
While the Father is poised in His time to whisper to His Son,
“It’s time. Go get your bride.”
“But concerning that day and hour no one knows, not even the angels of heaven, nor the Son, but the Father only.” (Matthew 24:36 ESV).
If you’re in the Dallas, TX area, you probably just witnessed one of the biggest downpours we’ve seen in a while.
The clouds are thick, low, and dark.
Take a look outside.
How amazing would it be to see those clouds part today to reveal the return of the Lord?
“And when he had said these things, as they were looking on, he was lifted up, and a cloud took him out of their sight.
And while they were gazing into heaven as he went, behold, two men stood by them in white robes,
and said, “Men of Galilee, why do you stand looking into heaven? This Jesus, who was taken up from you into heaven, will come in the same way as you saw him go into heaven.” (Acts 1:9-11 ESV).
We rely on God for everything.
He wouldn’t have to lift His hand against us for us to learn how powerful His presence is in our lives;
All He would have to do is stop showing kindness to us for us to see how much we do truly rely on Him daily.
“For the Gentiles seek after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them all.
But seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be added to you.” (Matthew 6:32
I am still in Ezekiel and I am so ready to move past the prophets. Not because I don’t see value in them, but because it reminds me that God expects me to walk with Him to avoid negative consequences.
Even though we see His grace repeatedly offered, His people repeatedly walked away from it.
God, at times, begged His people to return to Him, but they stiffened their necks in pride against Him.
Things haven’t changed much today.
God offers His grace and begs us to walk with Him.
But we often stiffen our necks to Him.
The prophets show the judgment of God. I wonder how many of us will be shocked, surprised, and in disbelief when His judgment comes.
The prophets are a shot of reality that we need, but it’s not fun to read through the messages. We like to focus on promises, grace, and forgiveness.
Sometimes, only hearing what we want to hear will cause us to close our ears and stiffen our necks to what we don’t want to hear.
So I will continue through the prophets until done. The redeeming message I long for is their promise that something better is coming.
Something better is here now.
I just read about God breathing life into the dry bones in Ezekiel. What was God trying to teach Ezekiel? Simply, He has the power, the desire, and the inclination to take us when we are dead and without hope and breathe into us life and vitality.
Sin kills us and separates us from God. We all have been or are dead before God. Without God breathing life into our dead bones, we are without hope.
But Ezekiel shows us that God gives hope. We can never be so dead that God cannot restore life to us.
What is stopping me from calling on the name of the Lord today and having His Spirit breathe life into me, washing away my sins?
This is still God’s world.
We can jockey for a piece of it
We can plan, scheme, buy and sell
But that doesn’t change the fact that we are all playing with what is, and always will be God’s possessions.
God can give or take away
God can lift up or bring down
God doesn’t need to consult with you or me when it comes to what He does with His possessions.
He doesn’t seem to be as concerned about who gets what
As He is about what we do with His stuff.
Naked we came into the world, and naked we will return.
Let’s ensure we have the proper perspective about His stuff in His world.
“and the dust returns to the earth as it was, and the spirit returns to God who gave it.” (Ecclesiastes 12:7 ESV).