whATTRIBUTES: Attributes of a Loving God
OMNISCIENT ONE
February 14th, 2022
Psalm 139:1-6, ‘Lord, you know everything there is to know about me. You perceive every movement of my heart and soul, and You understand my every thought before it even enters my mind. You are so intimately aware of me, Lord. You read my heart like an open book, and You know all the words I’m about to speak before I even start a sentence! You know every step I will take before my journey even begins. You’ve gone into my future to prepare the way, and in kindness, You follow behind me to spare me from the harm of my past. You have laid Your hand on me! This is just too wonderful, deep, and incomprehensible! Your understanding of me brings me wonder and strength.’ (TPT)
It was a revelation to me when a friend commented offhandedly one day, ‘Did you think God is surprised by any of this?!’ I think it was in response to the increasingly alarming pandemic which had become a fire-breathing dragon overnight. We all hunkered around our homes, isolated and alone, wringing our hands in desperation, too fearful to challenge what threatened all of us. Doesn’t God care? I mean, if He did, He could stop this, like right now already! Oh, maybe He doesn’t even know, cuz if He did, surely, He’d intervene. I don’t know; some statements such as these were floating around. Then someone asked the questions which changed the trajectory of my thinking.
I don’t know why I had never considered it: did anything come as a surprise to God? I recalled all the prayers I had been uttering, telling Him all the details of why and who I was praying for. You know, ‘Lord, be with Auntie, who is scheduled at 2 pm for her gallbladder surgery, but she is considering going at 10 am, in case her doctor can see her sooner. She’s in a great deal of pain, God, so could you make it possible for her doctor to see her sooner? You know, God, he’s that’s really kind doctor down at that new hospital on the outskirts of town. I don’t know if you know the one I mean—the one that was so controversial to be built. Auntie doesn’t know, God, if because she sat on the hospital board if that will stand for her or go against her, God. But anyway she is possibly going to arrive earlier tomorrow so if you think of it, God, could you send her some extra juice?’ or how about, ‘Good Lord, there have been a million deaths now worldwide from this Covid bug, and who knows how many more there could possibly be?! It is wiping out the world!’ or, simply, ‘God, hi, it’s me Michelle, I don’t know if You remember, but I have that really important test tomorrow…’
What the Lord wants is relationship, and relationship is about knowing one another. Because of His great care for you in addition to His omniscient qualities, He knows everything about you, and there is not one surprise that comes His way. While He is never alarmed by anything you do, He may be saddened. However, He doesn’t sit around wringing His hands, and hoping you won’t go left when you have your right blinker on because that is the direction you should turn in. He isn’t wishing I get my act together or praying I don’t make that choice. He is fully aware of my humanity, and when He looks at me through the lens of His Son who heaped all my guck on top of His shoulders, He sees something that may be quite surprising to me and to those who know me, but it isn’t surprising to a Holy God Who has so much belief in you and in me.
So when you’re talking to Him, there isn’t any need to spend all your time telling Him everything He already knows. Tell Him instead something else He’d like to hear, like how deeply you love Him, how desperately you need Him, how great it is that He is always present, waiting for you and me to make time to spend with Him.
Ex 3:13-14, ‘Moses said to God, “Suppose I go to the Israelites and say to them, ‘The God of your fathers has sent me to you,’ and they ask me, ‘What is his name?’ Then what shall I tell them?” God said to Moses, “I am who I am. This is what you are to say to the Israelites: ‘I am has sent me to you.’” (NIV)
