“God knows what you need, when you need it… it’s not always what we want, but it’s what we need…
• As Jesus was gathering His disciples, He knew what they needed to believe…
(John 1:48) “I saw you”
• God sees every moment, of every day, of our lives, we can hide nothing from him…
A.W. Tozar expressed this idea like this… (Chapter 5 in The Pursuit of God)
The idea of God being present everywhere “has not sunk into the average Christian’s heart so as to become a part of his believing self.” This is not pantheism… God is not “the sum of all created things”
“The truth is that while God dwells in His world, He is separated from it by gulf forever impassable… He is transcendent above all His works even while He is immanent within them.”
Why does this matter “it means simply that God is here. Wherever we are, God is here. There is no place, there can be no place, where He is not. No point is nearer to God than any other point… {but} the presence and the manifestation of the presence are not the same. God is here when we are wholly unaware of it. He is manifest only when and as we are aware of His presence. On our part there must be surrender… if we cooperate with Him in loving obedience, God will manifest Himself to us, and that manifestation would be the difference between a nominal Christian life and a life radiant with the light of His face… To each one He would reveal not only that He is, but what He is as well.”
• God sees us… in every terrible failure He loves us and desires to draw us into restored relationship with Him… Every great victory, every mountaintop, he celebrates with us…
Sometimes we can look at this truth, the all-seeing God with fear of judgment… I believe the healthy perspective of this is different:
This should produce in us Accountability…
• Nothing I do, or say, or think is hidden from God, so let it be pleasing to God…
• Accountability for everything good and bad is first to God… and then others… Psalm 51:1-4
This should produce in us Courage…
• We’re not alone in our battles… Jude 24-25
This should produce in us Comfort…
• Easy to love someone with an idealized understanding of them… God’s never had an idealized privilege… He knows us at our worst and loves us, continues to give us breath when we are enemies with Him… Romans 5:10
{this is what God spoke to me as I read this verse}
I saw you…
• Jesus saw him under that tree, but He also saw him when he badmouthed His town, He saw him the first-time envy entered his heart, he saw him the first time he had lust, he saw his biggest lie, he saw his greatest fit of rage… Take a montage of the worst versions of yourself, the most vile, the darkest, the thing you regret the most…
• Jesus says… I saw you then… and I’m going to live a perfect and loving life before you… I’m going to die on a tree in your place, for every vile thing you’ve done big or small in your eyes… The father will resurrect me… and if you put your faith in Me you’ll know My grace, you’ll know eternal life and you will be forgiven…
And He says to everyone here today… I see you…”