What are the Chances?

...giving thanks to the Father who
has qualified us to be partakers
of the inheritance of the saints
in the light. He has delivered
us from the power of darkness
and conveyed us into the kingdom
of the Son of His love,in whom we
have redemption through His blood,
the forgiveness of sins. Col. 1:12-13


Have you ever really considered the "all knowledge" of God? What are the chances that the King of the Universe would bow so low in order to have a relationship with someone like us that lives on this dirt ball spinning in the galaxy of space? How about the fact that He knows everything about us, and yet still loves us? I find myself thinking about God's attribute of omniscience in different, maybe strange kinds of ways, ways that might seem odd to someone who never thought of God's all knowing power. For example,  how about the fact that God knows how many grains of sugar would be in every sugar bowl sitting on every table throughout this entire world? God is also fully aware how many grains of salt are in all floating right now in all of the oceans over the world. He knows how many hairs are on each and every person's head, and  He even knows the exact moment each and every one of those hairs fall off our heads, where they will fall to, and what will become of them.

"And He is before all things, and in Him all things consist." Colossians 1:17

He holds this whole universe together: every atom, every molecule, every light wave. He knows how many times each one of our hearts have beat in their chests, and how many are left for each one of us. Why should I worry when I have such a God as that? Although I admit, I fail at times with worrying, even after knowing these things. He is so patient with me, each day He gives me a new chance to prove that I trust Him and a fresh clean slate unmarked by yesterday's failures.

I was struggling about trusting Him for my husband's being laid off, and this morning was no different. I started to read the Word as I always do, and found inspiration to write a poem. Basically it said I would trust Him, no matter how hard my feelings were rebelling inside. After I wrote it, my husband's phone started ringing, and he got the good news we have waited for for so long. He was getting called back to work. God's timing is always perfect.

Another thing we  have concluded: there are no accidents. Everything happens for a reason, and if only we trust God, we can have the grace and stamina to hang on in the most trying circumstances.

My God knows every burst of wind and when it will blow. He hears all the prayers of all the people praying to Him around the world yet can still personally attend to each one. He knew in advance all the sins we would ever commit, yet still went to the cross to die and pay the penalty for each and every one. What an amazing God!

I wanted to share something about God's omniscience I found in the book The Integrity of God, written by R,B, Thieme Jr, about what he calls the "Doctrine of the Divine Decrees." On page 297, introducing the subject, Thieme wrote:

"The decree of God is His eternal, holy, wise, and sovereign purpose, comprehending simultaneously
all things that ever were of will be in their causes, courses, conditions, successions, and relations determining their certain futurition."

God never learns anything, because He already knows everything! When I think back to when I was afraid to trust Him with my life, I'm ashamed of  my hardened unbelieving heart. To think that the created one did not trust the One who formed her, that somehow I knew better than He did in what was best for me? And yet this same One was so very patient with me, and let me discover through my own stupid decisions that to follow His ways really are for my best, even if the rest of the world thinks it to be foolish.

I read about God's omniscience in AW Tozer's wonderful book, The Pursuit of God.  I highlighted on my Kindle Tozer's amazing words:

 "He knew us utterly before we knew Him and called us to Himself in the full knowledge of everything that was against us...Our Father in heaven knows our frame and remembers that we are but dust. He knew our inborn treachery, and for His own sake engaged to save us. (Is. 48:8-11) His only begotten Son, when He walked among us, felt our pains in their naked intensity of
anguish. His knowledge of our afflictions and adversities is more than theoretic, it is personal, warm and compassionate. Whatever may befall us, God knows us and cares as no one else can."
(Location 2762 and 2763)

And so, as we start off the New Year of 2016 and whatever it may hold, maybe my readers might want to consider: "What are the chances that the God of the universe would want to have a relationship with me? What kind of God must He be?"

For, "God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life." John 3:16

Resting in the Savior's Sanctuary

"A glorious high throne from the beginning is the place of our sanctuary." Jeremiah 17:12

Did you ever wonder why things are the way they are in your life? I know I have wondered it for mine. I think back to when I was just ready to graduate from high school and my "whole life" ahead of me. Such dreams, such hopes. And here I am today, over thirty years later with most of my life behind me now. There are some things I wish I had never gone through, but yet they happened any way.

If it were not for the truth contained in the above verse, I often could feel sad by the way some things have turned out, by the way things seem to appear in my life. But God is sovereign, and He has a purpose beyond mine. In that I can rejoice. Before I ever was conceived, God had my whole life known before Him. He knew all the things that would happen, and yet He allowed them for a reason.

Another verse of great comfort is II Corinthians 2:14: "Now thanks be to God who always leads us in triumph in Christ, and through us diffuses the fragrance of His knowledge in every place." Now how does God do that? How could He possibly lead me in triumph in everything? Only one way, if I keep trusting Him that He knows everything that is going on in my life and is working it for my absolute good.

Life is tough, but God is always there. He knows all things that will happen to us in the future, and desires to work them for our ultimate good. When I know that God is sovereign over every little detail of my life, then my anxious heart can find rest in Him. He knows me, He knows all about me. What peace I can gain from that thought. He is not just sitting up there on a throne, waiting for me to make a mistake so He can beat me over the head somehow. No, I read about Jesus doing the very opposite for me:

In the book of Hebrews, chapter 7, Kenneth Wuest translates verse 25 this way: "He is able also to be saving completely and forever those who come to God through Him, being always alive for the purpose of continually making intercession for them."

That doesn't sound like a God ready to "get me" but a God of compassion, a God who knows everything about me and yet He loves me somehow. David wrote in Psalm 139:1-6:

1 O LORD, You have searched me and known me.
2 ​​You know my sitting down and my rising up;
​​You understand my thought afar off.
3 ​​You comprehend my path and my lying down,
​​And are acquainted with all my ways.
4 ​​For there is not a word on my tongue,
​​But behold, O LORD, You know it altogether.
5 ​​You have hedged me behind and before,
​​And laid Your hand upon me.
6 ​​Such knowledge is too wonderful for me;
​​It is high, I cannot attain it.

If this is really true, then I do not need to be afraid of hiding anything from God. Indeed I cannot hide anything from Him. He knew all of my life and every thought I would think, before I even existed. All He wants me to do is trust Him, that He is working things for the good, that He will take care of every detail of my life. He is ever concerned, ever involved, ever caring in my life.

In His Word, God proves He is ever concerned in every trial:


Psalm 46
1 God is our refuge and strength,
​​A very present help in trouble.
2 ​​Therefore we will not fear,
​​Even though the earth be removed,
​​And though the mountains be carried into the midst of the sea;
3 ​​Though its waters roar and be troubled,
​​Though the mountains shake with its swelling.

7 ​​The LORD of hosts is with us;
​​The God of Jacob is our refuge. Selah

In His Word, God proves He is ever involved with all the details of our life:

Psa 71:5-6
For You are my hope, O Lord GOD;
You are my trust from my youth.

By You I have been upheld from birth;
You are He who took me out of my mother’s womb.
My praise shall be continually of You.

Finally, in His Word, God proves He is ever caring of all our needs and burdens:

I Peter 5
​6 Therefore humble yourselves under the mighty hand of God, that He may exalt you in due time, 7 casting all your care upon Him, for He cares for you.​

In fact, He cares for me because I am in His Son, and He loves me with the very same love that He has for His Son, for Jesus prayed for us in John 17, asking His Father:

"O holy Father, maintain a watchful care over them in Your name, which You have given Me, in order that they may be one even as we." (John 17:11, Wuest translation)

"And I made known to them Your name, and will make it known, in order that the love with which You loved Me might be in them and I might be in them." (John 17:25, Wuest transl.)

Again, in the epistle of I John chapter 3, verses 1 and 2 are translated by Kenneth Wuest like this:

"Behold, what exotic (foreign to the human heart) love the Father has permanently bestowed upon us, to the end that we may be named children (born-ones, bairns) of God. And we are. On this account, the world does not have an experiential knowledge of us, because it does not have an experiential knowledge of Him. Divinely loved ones, now born ones of God we are. And not yet has it been made visible what we shall be. We know absolutely that whenever it is made visible, like ones to Him shall we be, because we shall see Him as He is."

These are just a few verses that prove that God knows all about us and our situations and is sovereign over every detail. He has done everything He possibly could to give us a sense of security and love, in spite of whatever is going on around us. Because of this, we can thank Him for all things, and when we do, it lifts us above our problems to His glorious throne, the blessed place of our sanctuary, both now and forever.