knows – Praying Pint

20. “But all are naked and exposed to the eyes of him to whom we must give account.”

Romans 8:27 And he who searches hearts knows what is the mind of the Spirit, because the Spirit intercedes for the saints according to the will of God.

1 Chronicles 28:9    “And you, Solomon my son, know the God of your father and serve him with a whole heart and with a willing mind, for the LORD searches all hearts and understands every plan and thought. If you seek him, he will be found by you, but if you forsake him, he will cast you off forever.

Psalms 44:21    would not God discover this? For he knows the secrets of the heart.

Jeremiah 11:20    But, O LORD of hosts, who judges righteously, who tests the heart and the mind

Acts 1:24    And they prayed and said, “You, Lord, who know the hearts of all, show which one of these two you have chosen

Hebrews 4:13    And no creature is hidden from his sight, but all are naked and exposed to the eyes of him to whom we must give account.

Revelation 2:23    and I will strike her children dead. And all the churches will know that I am he who searches mind and heart, and I will give to each of you according to your works.

Psalms 66:18-19    If I had cherished iniquity in my heart, the Lord would not have listened.

If God were to open up your heart and mind and expose all of your thoughts, plans, and ideas, what would He expose and how would you explain it? What would He expose hidden or tucked away? Scripture gives us a glimpse of the natural human heart; greed, pride, arrogance, hate, fear, anger, lust, self-worth, self-reliance, self-satisfaction, etc…….. It is the essence of our natural being. It is not as though God needs to search to find what is in our hearts, He knows what is in our hearts and minds. He knows the intent of all of our thoughts and actions. The first intent of natural man is to deny it is anything that needs to be changed. The second intent is to hide it away from others. The third intent is to hide it away from God. The fourth intent is to hide it away from ourselves. The fifth intent is to deny it is ever there. The sixth intent is trying to perform in such a way to make it right before God in self-reliant actions. In all of these attempts to conceal, keep hidden, block out, cover, disguise, keep secret, gloss over, bury, suppress, repress, or keep in the dark, God still knows. He sees the hearts and minds of each and every person. It is never hidden or kept in secret from Him who sees all and knows all.

Our hearts seem to store what we allow into it. If our hearts are fed a steady diet void of a desire for God’s Word with the intent to honor and glorify Him, we will certainly have a heart filled with worldly things that seem right in our own eyes. Are we to think that by neglecting His Word into our hearts and minds that we are guiltless before Him? Absolutely not. He has not only given us His Word, but He sent His Son to redeem us from the natural sinful wants and desires, to give us a new birth with hope in eternal life, and He sent the Holy Spirit to dwell within us to lead and guide us each moment of every day. If our hearts and minds neglect time in His Word and we do not seek or desire to do that which is honoring and glorifying of Jesus Christ, we are believing Satan’s lies and fool ourselves into thinking we are living for Him. Scripture says “They serve me with their mouths but their heart is in this world” and “out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaks”, and “He will say, depart from me for I never knew you.”

David knew the heart was wicked and deceitful. He knew nothing was hidden from God even if it for some reason hidden or obscure from his eyes when he said; “Search me, O God, and know my heart! Try me and know my thoughts! And see if there be any grievous way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting!

1.m. Be watchful, stand firm in the faith, be strong and courageous.

1 Chronicles 28:20 Then David said to Solomon his son, “Be strong and courageous and do it. Do not be afraid and do not be dismayed, for the Lord God, even my God, is with you. He will not leave you or forsake you, until all the work for the service of the house of the Lord is finished.

1 Chronicles 28:10 Be careful now, for the LORD has chosen you to build a house for the sanctuary; be strong and do it.”

1 Chronicles 22:13 Then you will prosper if you are careful to observe the statutes and the rules that the LORD commanded Moses for Israel. Be strong and courageous. Fear not; do not be dismayed.

Deuteronomy 31:7-8 It is the LORD who goes before you. He will be with you; he will not leave you or forsake you. Do not fear or be dismayed.”

Joshua 1:6-9 Be strong and courageous, for you shall cause this people to inherit the land that I swore to their fathers to give them. Only be strong and very courageous, being careful to do according to all the law that Moses my servant commanded you. Do not turn from it to the right hand or to the left, that you may have good success wherever you go. This Book of the Law shall not depart from your mouth, but you shall meditate on it day and night, so that you may be careful to do according to all that is written in it. For then you will make your way prosperous, and then you will have good success. Have I not commanded you? Be strong and courageous. Do not be frightened, and do not be dismayed, for the LORD your God is with you wherever you go.”

1 Corinthians 16:13 Be watchful, stand firm in the faith, act like men, be strong.

It is one thing to be strong and courageous when there are no trials and troubles raining down on our head. It is another to apply when you are neck-deep in them and another huge wave is ready to crash down on you all kinds of anxiousness, worry, heart pain, sleeplessness, unhappiness, and hurt. These attacks come in many forms; financial, health, friendship, family, culture/society approved norms. We normally don’t even get a fair warning that the storm is coming, it just blows up out of nowhere and we are carried away by the currents of each wave that powers over us. So what are we to do? How do we keep from being swept away into an unforgiving sea of worry and doubt?

Stay close to Jesus all the time and trust Him, cling to Him, and rely on Him.

“do not be anxious about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God.”

“Therefore I tell you, do not be anxious about your life, what you will eat or what you will drink, nor about your body, what you will put on. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothing? Look at the birds of the air: they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not of more value than they? And which of you by being anxious can add a single hour to his span of life? And why are you anxious about clothing? Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow: they neither toil nor spin, yet I tell you, even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these. But if God so clothes the grass of the field, which today is alive and tomorrow is thrown into the oven, will he not much more clothe you, O you of little faith? Therefore do not be anxious, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear?’ For the Gentiles seek after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them all. But seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be added to you.”

“Do not be like them, for your Father knows what you need before you ask him.”

“As for what was sown among thorns, this is the one who hears the word, but the cares of the world and the deceitfulness of riches choke the word, and it proves unfruitful.”

“casting all your anxieties on him, because he cares for you.”

“Trust in the LORD with all your heart, and do not lean on your own understanding.

“In all your ways acknowledge him, and he will make straight your paths.”

“Commit your work to the LORD, and your plans will be established.”

“ Call to me and I will answer you”

“ “Ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives, and the one who seeks finds, and to the one who knocks it will be opened.”

“And will not God give justice to his elect, who cry to him day and night? Will he delay long over them?”

“But you, beloved, building yourselves up in your most holy faith and praying in the Holy Spirit, keep yourselves in the love of God, waiting for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ that leads to eternal life.”

The word of God is full of precious promises for our faith to stand firm on. Do not let things of this world and things this side of eternity rob you from a Jesus honoring victorious life through the current and waves of trials and troubles.

26. God knows our thoughts and intents

Numbers 14:26 And the Lord spoke to Moses and to Aaron, saying, “How long shall this wicked congregation grumble against me? I have heard the grumblings of the people of Israel, which they grumble against me. Say to them, As I live, declares the Lord, what you have said in my hearing I will do to you: your dead bodies shall fall in this wilderness, and of all your number, listed in the census from twenty years old and upward, who have grumbled against me, not one shall come into the land where I swore that I would make you dwell, except Caleb the son of Jephunneh and Joshua the son of Nun. But your little ones, who you said would become a prey, I will bring in, and they shall know the land that you have rejected. But as for you, your dead bodies shall fall in this wilderness. And your children shall be shepherds in the wilderness forty years and shall suffer for your faithlessness, until the last of your dead bodies lies in the wilderness. According to the number of the days in which you spied out the land, forty days, a year for each day, you shall bear your iniquity forty years, and you shall know my displeasure.’ I, the Lord, have spoken. Surely this will I do to all this wicked congregation who are gathered together against me: in this wilderness they shall come to a full end, and there they shall die.”

Psalms 139:2    You know when I sit down and when I rise up; you discern my thoughts from afar.

Psalm 94:11 The Lord—knows the thoughts of man, that they are but a breath.

Jeremiah 17:10 “I the Lord search the heart and test the mind, to give every man according to his ways, according to the fruit of his deeds.”

Psalm 139:4   Even before a word is on my tongue, behold, O Lord, you know it altogether.

1 Samuel 16:7 But the Lord said to Samuel, “Do not look on his appearance or on the height of his stature, because I have rejected him. For the Lord sees not as man sees: man looks on the outward appearance, but the Lord looks on the heart.”

1 Chronicles 28:9 “And you, Solomon my son, know the God of your father and serve him with a whole heart and with a willing mind, for the Lord searches all hearts and understands every plan and thought. If you seek him, he will be found by you, but if you forsake him, he will cast you off forever.

2 Corinthians 10:5   We destroy arguments and every lofty opinion raised against the knowledge of God, and take every thought captive to obey Christ,

Psalm 139:23-24 Search me, O God, and know my heart! Try me and know my thoughts! And see if there be any grievous way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting!

God knows our thoughts and intents. He knows the word on our tongue before it is spoken. He looks and searches our heart. God will give every man according to his ways. Scripture begs us to examine ourselves in and through His word. It tells us to take our thoughts captive. Thoughts not in line with the fruits of the Spirit need to be taken captive and discarded immediately. Think about this for awhile. It is not easy when we have been wronged, hurt, sick, lost someone, felt alone, felt neglected, felt cheated, treated unfairly, cut-off while driving, rumored about, slandered, without a job or income, etc…….

Thoughts come and they can be stepping stones to separation from God’s peace, refuge, rest, strength, courage, and hope. If these thoughts are taken captive and recognized for what they are we can easily discard them and confess them to God. We can even ask Him to remove these thoughts from our head.

Examine your thoughts today and see if they reflect the love of Jesus Christ.

Call and I will answer

Psalms 91:14 “Because he holds fast to me in love, I will deliver him; I will protect him, because he knows my name. When he calls to me, I will answer him; I will be with him in trouble; I will rescue him and honor him. With long life I will satisfy him and show him my salvation.”

Romans 8:28 And we know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose.

James 1:12 Blessed is the man who remains steadfast under trial, for when he has stood the test he will receive the crown of life, which God has promised to those who love him.

James 2:5 Listen, my beloved brothers, has not God chosen those who are poor in the world to be rich in faith and heirs of the kingdom, which he has promised to those who love him?

Galatians 4:9 But now that you have come to know God, or rather to be known by God, how can you turn back again to the weak and worthless elementary principles of the world, whose slaves you want to be once more?

John 12:43 for they loved the glory that comes from man more than the glory that comes from God.

Jeremiah 33:3 Call to me and I will answer you, and will tell you great and hidden things that you have not known.

Isaiah 58:9 Then you shall call, and the LORD will answer; you shall cry, and he will say, ‘Here I am.’ If you take away the yoke from your midst, the pointing of the finger, and speaking wickedness,

Acts 18:9 And the Lord said to Paul one night in a vision, “Do not be afraid, but go on speaking and do not be silent for I am with you, and no one will attack you to harm you, for I have many in this city who are my people.”

John 12:26 If anyone serves me, he must follow me; and where I am, there will my servant be also. If anyone serves me, the Father will honor him.

2 Corinthians 1:9 Indeed, we felt that we had received the sentence of death. But that was to make us rely not on ourselves but on God who raises the dead. He delivered us from such a deadly peril, and he will deliver us. On him we have set our hope that he will deliver us again.

“When he calls to me, I will answer him; I will be with him in trouble; I will rescue him and honor him,” “Then you shall call, and the LORD will answer;” “Call to me and I will answer you, and will tell you great and hidden things that you have not known.” We have great promises from God. Call to Me and I will answer is one not to forget. Sometimes all we want is an answer, to know that God will respond means we can wait in peace for His reply. Waiting in perfect peace is an attribute grown in faith, through trust, reliance, hope, and understanding knowledge of God. Being in the presence of God, through faith, will eliminate anxiousness as we await God’s perfect response.