\n<\/p>\n
We do things in secret as humans. In the darkness. We tell ourselves, God doesn\u2019t see. We do things in front of the computer when no one is looking, on our phone in secret, when no one is home, and we assume, its safe, no one saw me. But God saw it all. <\/p>\n
Our entire civilization has interpreted and re-interpreted everything from marriage, to entertainment, science, psychology, morality, philosophy, all of it re-interpreted to exclude the reality of God and His word. But in the end, they cannot dissolve God\u2019s light, they rely on it even as they reject it.<\/p>\n
The famous philosophy Voltaire said, \u201c”One hundred years from my day, there will not be a Bible on earth except one that is looked upon by an antiquarian curiosity-seeker” 50 years after Voltaire had passed, his predictions had not come true, and the house he had lived in was in use by the Geneva bible society as a place to store and print bibles and Christian literature.<\/p>\n
So if you have things you\u2019re hiding from God, he already knows. What God asks, is that we stop hiding them, he wants us to bring them into the light, of our own choice. Because one day all things will be brought into the light by God himself, for judgment. Bring them into the light now, confess it to God, ask God to forgive it if it\u2019s sin, ask God to heal it if it\u2019s broken. <\/p>\n
There are no separate categories of our lives that God isn\u2019t allowed into, there is no division between our religious life and our personal life, it\u2019s all one thing. It\u2019s all before God\u2019s eyes.<\/p>\n
Judge yourself now, and bring those things into the light. As Ephesians 5:13 says, \u201c “But everything exposed by the light becomes visible\u2014and everything that is illuminated becomes a light.” <\/p>\n
In verses 13-15 it says, \u201c13 You made all the delicate, inner parts of my body and knit me together in my mother\u2019s womb.
14 Thank you for making me so wonderfully complex!
Your workmanship is marvelous\u2014how well I know it.
15 You watched me as I was being formed in utter seclusion,
as I was woven together in the dark of the womb.\u201d<\/p>\n
In all the endless thousands of years before you, all this human history took place, and then one day, through your parents, you began to exist. And God wove you together in your mother\u2019s womb. <\/p>\n
Lungs, kidneys, liver, pancreas, muscles, tendons, ligaments, all forming together in a magnificently complex series of pre-programmed functions written into your DNA. <\/p>\n
If God can cause your mother\u2019s womb, your DNA, and all those functions to weave together to form your birth, how much more can God be trusted to weave the strands of your life together to form a blessed and holy adventure?<\/p>\n
All of this, from the intricate design of your body in the womb, to the intricate weaving of your life journey, all proves one thing about God:<\/p>\n
He is love. <\/p>\n
And when we see this incredible love of God in action, it causes us to trust Him.<\/p>\n
But here\u2019s how the journey works: We\u2019re going through a rough reality on Earth, we\u2019re walking through the curse of the fall.
So on our journey, God is training us.<\/p>\n
It starts with love, and as we love God, and God loves on us, we learn to trust God. <\/p>\n
Love and trust are deeply and intrinsically linked.<\/p>\n
So then we learn, through love, to trust.<\/p>\n
But what about when a difficult trial occurs in our lives? Or some traumatic event? <\/p>\n
We remember God is love at the source. We\u2019re going through a trial though, and its painful. Yet we do still sense God\u2019s love for us through it. So we hold on to the two realities, of the fact of His love and the sense of His love, to continue to trust.<\/p>\n
But as God weaves our journey together, he winnows our path as well.<\/p>\n
So what happens is, we go through even tougher trials. And then we also don\u2019t sense God\u2019s love through it. He even feels distant and cold at times. Far off even. <\/p>\n
It\u2019s in those moments that we can\u2019t sense his love, and we are in suffering, that all we have to hold on to is, the fact that we know God is love. And, during those hardest moments, if we remember God is love, we will trust, despite the distance and the trial. <\/p>\n
Next verse 16: \u201cYou saw me before I was born.
Every day of my life was recorded in your book.
Every moment was laid out
before a single day had passed.\u201d<\/p>\n
Not only did God form us in our womb, not only did he fashion our soul, not only does he weave our lives together through trials and joys, he also saw us before we were born.<\/p>\n
This is a profound mystery, but some claim to have memories of before they were born. They were with God in heaven, about to be sent to Earth, into the womb of their mother. This of course can\u2019t be proven. Whether you believe this or not is up to you, but the word of God does tell us, even before we were born, God saw us. <\/p>\n
We get another interesting fact about our journeys on Earth, we\u2019re told our lives are written in books in heaven. There is a book in heaven describing the events of your life and the choices you\u2019ve made. It\u2019s all recorded in heaven, every time you helped a homeless person, or prayed with a family member, or showed kindness to a waitress, or loved one of your children. Your book is in heaven, and will be opened on the day of judgment, and we as Christians will be able to say, every page where I sinned, it was washed away with the blood of Jesus, and that page would then be blank, and God would be able to search our book, and say, well, I only see the good things you did, because Jesus covered the bad. And we\u2019ll be rewarded. <\/p>\n
For those who did not receive and faithfully follow Jesus, they will be judged based on the sins recorded in their book in heaven. And the good won\u2019t be able to make up for the bad. Only Jesus can forgive sins. <\/p>\n
Verses 17-18 tells us: \u201c17 How precious are your thoughts about me, O God. They cannot be numbered!\u201d
18 I can\u2019t even count them;
they outnumber the grains of sand!<\/p>\n
Like the grains of sand on a seashore are the thoughts of God toward you. He is working on you in so many ways. And the best way to have the language and mindset to interact with those actions of God in your life is to know His word deeply, and to spend times in deep prayer, listening for His voice, and to spend time in heart felt worship. As you do those three things you\u2019ll be engaged in the process God is doing in your life, able to Hear, and respond to His voice. <\/p>\n
But I also want you to keep in mind the healing process that we went through together. It is vital to keep this process as a toolkit in your life. New traumas will come, new challenges will occur, and we can face them with the healing principles God has taught us in the psalms. <\/p>\n
Let\u2019s review the process God has taught us. The first message dealt with Psalm 23, seeking the restful healing God provides. 2nd, we talked about healing through prayer, Jesus will heal us through times of deep prayer. 3rd we talked about building faith, that by studying the evidence for God we can strengthen our faith. 4th we examined where suffering came from, how it came about through Adam and Eve\u2019s fall. 5th, we talked about racing thoughts, and the tool of wrestling with God through these racing thoughts. 6th we talked about overcoming fear by allowing God to be our deepest foundation. 7th we talked about the dark night of the soul, that the rock bottom experiences actually bring us closer to God if we allow them to train us, 8th we talked about how we call our souls to hope in God after a dark time, 9th we talked about Joy coming after we\u2019ve repented of sins, and found a clear conscience with God, 10th we talked about Gratitude, how we can choose gratitude by counting our blessings and rejecting negative thinking, 11th, we talked about humility, and how through God\u2019s help, we can be freed from pride, remain humble, and lastly, today, we talked about the blessing of the presence of God, that after we\u2019ve healed from trauma, and we\u2019ve come out the other side cleansed, renewed, humbled and softened in our heart, we experience a deeper anointing of the presence of God, the greatest blessing imaginable.<\/p>\n
Last portion, 18b: \u201cAnd when I wake up, you are still with me!\u201d<\/p>\n
This is a great reminder. Going forward, life will continue to happen. We will face new challenges, and new trials, and new losses. We will also enjoy new blessings, new joys, and new adventures.\u00a0<\/p>\n
But the most wonderful thing about our walk with God is, than when we wake up tomorrow, the word tells us, \u201cGod you are still with me.\u201d <\/p>\n
He is there each day for us, ready to walk us through no matter what may come. He has future grace for us tomorrow. Even knowing life still happens, I can trust you God. I do trust you God.<\/p>\n
I remember finishing writing this message, and thinking to myself, I\u2019m missing something. There were all these elements of the message, healing, God\u2019s presence in our lives, His overflowing love for us constant each day, difficulties we face and how God guides us through them, real trust that God develops in us, where we just trust him completely, how he weaves and winnows our path through this world, all God\u2019s endless thoughts toward us, the records of our books in heaven, how God sees it all, and how he\u2019s so much closer than we think. <\/p>\n
And I thought to myself, all of this culminates into the heart of what it means for God to be the king of our lives, the one who loves us, and guides us, the one we trust through the hardest difficulties of life, it\u2019s all the blessing we receive after we\u2019ve accepted Jesus Christ into our hearts. And it\u2019s active every single day we continue to follow Him. It\u2019s the active blessing.<\/p>\n
It brought to mind Numbers 6:24-26: Let this word be your prayer over you and your family: 24 \u201cThe Lord bless you and keep you; 25 the Lord make his face shine upon you and be gracious to you; 26 the Lord turn his face toward you and give you peace.\u201d<\/p>\n
Prayer:<\/b> Lord, today we thank you for healing us. Please continue to heal us of our deep heart wounds. God please bless us today with your presence in our lives, in every moment, may we sense, enjoy, and bask in your presence Father, as you bless us along this journey of life, in Jesus name, amen.\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/div>\n