He Sees It ALL

How is it that so often the fear of man drives us to obedience rather than the fear of God? Why do we choose to refrain from sinful behavior or speech in the presence of others and yet indulge in it when we are alone, in the quietness of our own hearts and minds. Is it odd to you as a Christian that the fact that God is ALWAYS there and watching doesn't seem to be a big enough deal at times to say NO to that temptation. Instead of saying, "What would God think of this", we might say, "What would my pastor/parent/spouse/friends etc. think of this". The more I think about this reality, the more ashamed I am, and the more I realize the need I have to comprehend who God is and the fear of Him.

I recently read a Grace Gems on this very topic that was convicting and challenging. The Puritan writer James Smith exhorts his reader to think about the TRUTH of the human heart as described in Jeremiah 17:9 "The human heart is the most deceitful of all things, and desperately wicked! Who really knows how bad it is?" God knows. Think about that for a second. God knows who wicked YOUR heart is. He knows every fleeting thought, every defeated temptation, every indulgent pleasure, EVERY sin. He knows it all. He sees it, and yet He still loves YOU believer. That is just dumbfounding.

If our family and our friends, whom we often hide sin from, saw what God sees, if He revealed that concealed sin to the world, what would they think then? You see we may worry about what others think, but our focus shouldn't be on them, for they see only part of our sinfulness, of who we truly are, if that. Rather, we should fear what God thinks because He sees it all. Smith says, "How kind it is of our gracious God, to conceal from others--what He Himself sees within us; and which if known by others--would alienate them from us, and fill them with disgust! What contemptible creatures we would appear to our friends--if they knew all about us! "

What a truly gracious and loving God we serve, who loves us IN SPITE of our sin. But may that grace we receive never give us a license to indulge in sin, may we never forget that He is always watching...and knowing those two truths MUST transform our lives!