The song by Bennie Triplett captures our theme for today, “How about your heart; is it right with God? That’s the thing that counts today. Is it black with sin; is it pure within? Could you ask Christ in to stay? People often see you as you are outside. Jesus really knows you, for He sees inside.”

In a recent column, we considered that our all-knowing God knows about our ancestry, any unpleasant upbringing through no fault of our own, and He has provided the remedy to compensate as fully lined out in His Word. He knows our abilities and does not expect us to achieve what he has not gifted us to do while, at the same time, He expects us to develop the talents He has provided which are sufficient for anything He has called us to do. He is fully aware of our aspirations which may need resetting if they are not wholesome and righteous, for He blesses our desires to love Him with all our being and to serve Him acceptably while He gives instruction and ability to repent of anything not pleasing to Him or profitable to us. Our last observation was He knows our anxieties which He can calm.

Now we want to observe more areas of our lives that God sees and wants to be involved in. God knew all about our birth before our life came to be. As difficult as it is for some of us to fathom, some parents want their children to have the same vices and bad habits they have. Others want their offspring to choose the same wicked lifestyle they have lived. God has a different idea as recorded in Jeremiah 29:11, “For I know the thoughts I think toward you, saith the Lord, thoughts of peace not evil to give you an expected end (great expectations).” God has wonderful things in mind for every person when they come into this world, but we are allowed to make good or bad choices. Most importantly, He provided the second birth when we can be born again spiritually into His family with Heavenly eternal benefits.

Next we find that God knows all about the blessings He has poured out on us and He cares how we bless Him and others because of and with what He has given us. David said in Psalm 103:1-2, “Bless the Lord, O my soul: and all that is within me bless His holy name. Bless the Lord, O my soul, and forget not all His benefits.” In this psalm we find a list of His benefits: forgiveness, healing, eternal redemption, lovingkindness, tender mercies, provisions of life, etc. Psalm 68:19 reminds us that He “daily loadeth us with benefits,” and He longs for us to, “Be thankful unto Him,” (Psalm 100:4).

It is so important to God, also, that we bless others with the bounty He has provided for us that He promises us in Psalm 41:1-3, “Blessed is he that considers the poor: the Lord will deliver him in time of trouble…he shall be blessed upon the earth…Thou wilt make all his bed in his sickness.” On the other hand, Proverbs 21:13 tells us, “Whoso stoppeth his ears at the cry of the poor, he also shall cry himself, but shall not be heard.”

Finally, the Lord knows about our blunders and has this to say in Romans 3:10, 23, “There is none righteous, no, not one…for all have sinned.” But, He has made provision for our sin problem in Romans 6:23, “For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.” For the child of God, He has this encouragement, “For a just man falleth seven times, and riseth up again.

Jesus really knows us and He desires more than you could ever imagine for you to come to know Him as Savior and Lord if you do not know Him.

— Randy Zinn is pastor of Russell Missionary Baptist Church, Russell, Ark.; formerly of Okmulgee.