He Knows Me Through and Through

For whom he did foreknow, he also did predestinate to be conformed to the image of his Son (Romans 8:29)

What a wonderful thing to be known by God! The elders use to pray, “You know us Lord, better than we know ourselves.” His knowledge about me is greater than my comprehension will ever be in this life. God knows us through and through. He meticulously made me for a certain end: “to be conformed to the image of his Son, Jesus Christ.

Some limit foreknowledge to mere “foresight” or that God knows what will happen before it happens. But God’s foreknowledge is so much more than that. The word speaks of a determinant design. The idea is captured beautifully by David when He says, “you knit me together in my mother’s womb.” And the extent of God’s intimate innate blueprint of “whom he did foreknow” is stated in Jeremiah, “Before I formed thee in the belly I knew thee; and before thou camest forth out of the womb I sanctified thee, and I ordained thee a prophet unto the nations.”

Another analogy is that of a parent already knowing the things of life that his or her child will discover. He made us for a purpose, and that purpose is to be the elect of God. We’ve been set to that end. In that day, one’s knowledge of self will catch up with His knowledge as Paul says, “But then shall I know even as also I am known.”

The knowledge of who I am, and what God intended as He created me, is something I discover as I live and yet I can never discover what He has not known.  Again, the Psalmist is abundantly clear, “Your eyes saw my unformed body; all the days ordained for me were written in your book before one of them came to be.” Our personality, proclivities, passions, placement, etc. were all aimed by God for our redemption.

Instruct Me In The Night Seasons

Psa 16:7 I will bless the LORD, who hath given me counsel: my reins also instruct me in the night seasons.

What a wholesome resolve. Not only passionate but intellectual – “I will,” yet not only intellectual but passionate – “my reins.” And there is no other way to please God then to remain passionately tied to the word of God in the dark times. Yet this is often when Christians make excuses by appealing to the frailty of our humanity, and are emotionally turned to self-preservation rather than divine dependency.

The wise counsel of God is not as much for day as it is for the night seasons. What need is there to turn to other alternatives in the blissful season? What new source of light is sought in the brightness of day? Temptation dwells in the night, in the uncertainty of the wilderness experience, and in the presence of pain without apparent remedy.

Night seasons are unpredictable and they call for unpredictable behavior. And there is for the believer light in darkness, joy in sorrow, and assurance in uncertainty. Is not counsel given by God, a lamp unto our feet, and a light unto our path? The word of God instructs us when the day becomes dusk and dusk becomes dark. When what to do is no longer evident and obvious, when everything one thought would help is exhausted, and when all other advisors are at an impasse, what one knows of God remains reliable, stable and sure.

One may have at points blessed his own wisdom. One may have at points blessed his own ingenuity. One may have at points blessed his good friends. All of these bear some level of appropriateness. However, in the night seasons it is time to bless the Lord and Him alone.

The night seasons are not times to turn to the right or left. The night seasons are not times to doubt what God has said. The night seasons are not times to conclude that it’s more than you can bear. The night seasons are not times to conclude that God has forsaken you. The night seasons are not times to fall into fleshly consolations.

In the night seasons, one may have to know like Abraham that the Lord will provide a sacrifice in the place of your son. In the night seasons, one may have to say like the three Hebrew children, “If the Lord will not deliver me from the fire, I still won’t bow.” In the night seasons one may have to do like David after the death of a child, “arise from the earth, and wash, and anoint himself, and change his apparel, and come into the house of the LORD, and worship.” In the night seasons one must be informed by God’s counsel and driven by an unwavering attachment to the same.