Have you ever felt unnoticed?
Not to bum you out, but think for a moment about a time when you thought nobody was aware of you. Maybe you felt like nobody could possibly understand what was on your heart. Maybe you felt like nobody took time to think about you, talk to you, or stop what they were doing long enough to smile at you.
This verse encourages me again today: Psalm 139:1 = Oh Lord, you have searched me, and you know me.
God notices you. Even if you feel like nobody understands what’s going on inside of you… God does. He knows. Actually, God knows you very very well. He knows what you are going through. He knows every desire, every need, every hurt, every crazy emotion, every thought, every mess, everything about you. God cares for you so much that he is willing to get into the middle of your life, crud and all, to search you out… all so he can comprehend you.
Have you ever felt alone?
I have felt the way. I've felt absolutely certain of it at times. But it's just not true. I am not alone.
Psalm 139:2-12 encourages me again today:
2 You know when I sit and when I rise;
you perceive my thoughts from afar.
3 You discern my going out and my lying down;
you are familiar with all my ways.
4 Before a word is on my tongue
you know it completely, O LORD.
5 You hem me in—behind and before;
you have laid your hand upon me.
6 Such knowledge is too wonderful for me,
too lofty for me to attain.
7 Where can I go from your Spirit?
Where can I flee from your presence?
8 If I go up to the heavens, you are there;
if I make my bed in the depths, you are there.
9 If I rise on the wings of the dawn,
if I settle on the far side of the sea,
10 even there your hand will guide me,
your right hand will hold me fast.
11 If I say, "Surely the darkness will hide me
and the light become night around me,"
12 even the darkness will not be dark to you;
the night will shine like the day,
for darkness is as light to you.
God is there with us. He is aware of our every move. There is nowhere you can go that God doesn’t see each of us. If we’re standing or sitting, he sees it. And not only does he see, but he sets it up. He maps things out for us. He plots a course for us to follow. He tells us when to stop and rest. He knows where we are at every point along the way. He even knows what we are going to say before we say it.
The wild thing is that God doesn’t just set everything up and then let it go either. He goes ahead of us and behind us. He also is beside us. He places his hand of blessing on us… gently on our head. So wonderful is God’s presence that we cannot even fathom it.
We can never be fully alone on this earth. We can’t escape from God’s Spirit. We can’t get away from where he is. If we’re in a plane at 35,000 feet, God is there with us. If we dig the deepest hole, God is there. If we go to Mexico or Ireland, Afghanistan or Malaysia, even there God’s hand will guide you and his strength will support us. It's like St. Patrick's Prayer: "Christ with me, Christ before me, Christ behind me, Christ in me, Christ beneath me, Christ above me, Christ on my right, Christ on my left, Christ when I lie down, Christ when I sit down, Christ when I arise…"
Even in the midst of darkness, we cannot escape God’s presence. In the darkest moments of our life, God can see us. He is there beside us. To him, darkness is as clear as light. It doesn’t matter what the condition of our soul might be, God is there. Each of us is never alone.
Have you ever felt worthless?
Psalm 139:13-18 encourages me again today:
13 For you created my inmost being;
you knit me together in my mother's womb.
14 I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made;
your works are wonderful,
I know that full well.
15 My frame was not hidden from you
when I was made in the secret place.
When I was woven together in the depths of the earth,
16 your eyes saw my unformed body.
All the days ordained for me
were written in your book
before one of them came to be.
17 How precious to me are your thoughts, O God!
How vast is the sum of them!
18 Were I to count them,
they would outnumber the grains of sand.
When I awake,
I am still with you.
God values you. He thinks the world of you. He is so convinced that you are an amazing person. Do you think God is wrong? He made you! Every delicate little fiber of your body was put together by him. You are a miraculous quilt of blood and skin and muscle and tendons and tissues and hair. He knit you together in your mother’s womb. Even there you couldn’t escape his presence. He could see you so clearly in that secret, quiet place. God has made you wonderfully complex! That’s why nobody else can figure you out!
Only God knows your intimate soul. Only God can completely understand your deepest passions. Only God. He has known you since the day you were conceived. He mapped out and then recorded every day of your life. His heart gushes for you. He loves you so much. His thoughts about you are so precious! They are so wonderful. And he never stops thinking about you. He never forgets you. He is always constantly thinking about you. Innumerable thoughts! You couldn’t count all the thoughts God has about you. More than the grains of the sand of this earth is how many times God thinks about you. And every single day is like that. From day to day, every time you wake up, God loves you and is already thinking about you.
May you be so encouraged today. May you understand that you are understood. May you never feel alone again. May you always feel so important, so special, so loved. God sees your heart. God has mapped out a plan for you. God is with you. God created you- you! God is thinking about you right now. May you live encouraged and refreshed and re-powered in the knowledge that God knows and loves you.
** I first published a version of this post back in 2009… But thought the reminder would be refreshing this weekend. Be blessed!!
You did a smashing job this past weekend at Big Sandy Camp.