769 God Knows Our Thoughts - Enjoying God Part 2 - Psalm 139:3-6

Does God know our thoughts? I am Mike Henry Sr. with Follower of One. Thanks for joining me again today on the Follower of One Podcast. We're in the middle of a series. I originally thought it was going to be five episodes. It may be a few more. We're talking about Psalm 139..

 Today I want to read verses three through six. "You scrutinize my path and my lying down, and are intimately acquainted with all my ways. Even before there is a word on my tongue, behold O Lord, You know it all. You have enclosed me behind and before, and laid your hand upon me. Such knowledge is too wonderful for me; it is too high. I cannot attain to it."

Some of this language is a little stilted. This is from the 1995 New American Standard Bible. The word translated scrutinize in verse three, is translated differently by many different translations.

It means that God understands or discerns. He searches out. He observes, he may even sift through or winnow our thoughts, our path. He's watching over us. Our path can also be our going and coming, our travels. And so these words are a little different. Our journeying, it says as an alternate translation. 

My point here is God knows what we're thinking. He knows what's going on. And he has given us the ability to do the things that we do. We can cause great harm or we can create great good.  Our challenge I believe, is to realize that God knows what's going on in our brain. 

I want to give him my thoughts. I want to ask him to examine my thoughts and to shape them.

I want to give him authority over my thought life.  In my past, I wanted control over my own thoughts. But I've come to the point of verse 6, I believe, where David says, "Such knowledge is too wonderful for me. It is too high. I cannot attain to it."

Basically my brain won't stretch around this.  It says in the Net Bible, "Your knowledge is beyond my comprehension. It is too far beyond me. I am unable to fathom it." God is so cool that he knows what we think. He knows what we're doing, and he still allows us to do it.

And it creates consequences. I wonder how much or how little God really intervenes in what we do. And yet I want him to intervene more, the more that I get to know him and trust him. And I think that's our challenge as marketplace ministers today. Do we want God to direct us or do we want to direct ourselves?

I've been learning since the day I became a Christian over 34 years ago that  I wanted God's result in my life, even though I often wanted to do my own things. And so over time, I'm learning to trust him with the choices that he prompts me to make so that I can create the results that he's guiding me to create.

I think that's a complicated way of explaining it, but that's our call as marketplace ministers. 

How much of our life can we trust God for? Can we trust him today and pray for people that we don't like? Can we trust him today and pray for a difficult boss or a difficult coworker? Can we trust him enough today to serve someone or give them something that they don't deserve, something way above what they deserve? Can we be a blessing to the people around us? 

That's our job. Our job is to transform our environment like yeast transforms, dough. And that's an opportunity that we get because we're Christ followers. 

Thank you for being a marketplace minister today. Thank you for making a difference in the lives of every person that you meet. Ask God to guide your mind and to protect your thoughts and to show you how you can be a blessing to the people around you.

Everything that we do because we follow Jesus matters. And so you have the opportunity today to choose thoughts and actions that glorify God and will last forever. Thanks so much for being a marketplace minister. If you'd like to be a member of an online community that helps other people share their faith and live their faith on a daily basis, go to https://community.followerofone.org and check it out. 

Thanks very much.