Known

I need reading glasses but I don’t want them. Instead I hold things farther and farther away or resign myself to fuzzy details. I’ve enjoyed 20/20 vision for half a century and my distance vision is still sharp, but as we age, our eyes loose the ability to focus at different distances quickly. As humans and especially as Christians, we often struggle to live today with an eye toward eternity. Too often, we resign ourselves to diminished clarity in eternal things because they seem distant, favoring instead those things we can see and plan, feeling we have more control here and now.

“Look here, you who say, “Today or tomorrow we are going to a certain town and will stay there a year. We will do business there and make a profit.”

How do you know what your life will be like tomorrow?

Your life is like the morning fog—it’s here a little while, then it’s gone.

What you ought to say is, “If the Lord wants us to, we will live and do this or that.”

Otherwise you are boasting about your own pretentious plans, and all such boasting is evil.”

James 4:13-16 NLT

https://bible.com/bible/116/jas.4.13-16.NLT

“Now our knowledge is partial and incomplete, and even the gift of prophecy reveals only part of the whole picture!

But when the time of perfection comes, these partial things will become useless.

When I was a child, I spoke and thought and reasoned as a child. But when I grew up, I put away childish things.

Now we see things imperfectly, like puzzling reflections in a mirror, but then we will see everything with perfect clarity.

All that I know now is partial and incomplete, but then I will know everything completely, just as God now knows me completely.”

1 Corinthians 13:9-12 NLT

https://bible.com/bible/116/1co.13.9-12.NLT

Only God has complete knowledge, knowing all the can he known. God knows you and God knows me completely. Completely. Pause for a moment, close your eyes and let that sink in. The good, the bad, and the ugly. The knowledge of good and evil did indeed come through Adam and Eve to all humanity as the enemy promised when they tasted the forbidden fruit. Before that moment, they knew only good. Good in themselves, good in each other, good in God.

Now as self-will opened the door for shame and knowledge of guilt brought with it self-doubt and suspicion, so the first humans and every one since cast a cloud of doubt upon God. If she could do that to me, if I am capable of that duplicity, then isn’t God? The very thought that the enemy introduced in the garden has become a self-fulfilling prophecy, souring humanity’s perfect relationship with its Creator and Lord. Yet God is unchanging. He is the same yesterday, today, and forever. In spite of our rebellion and mistrust, He remains good, and He still works all things together for good. (Romans 8:28)

“How kind the Lord is! How good he is!

So merciful, this God of ours!

The Lord protects those of childlike faith; I was facing death, and he saved me.

Let my soul be at rest again, for the Lord has been good to me.

He has saved me from death, my eyes from tears, my feet from stumbling.

And so I walk in the Lord’s presence as I live here on earth!”

Psalms 116:5-9 NLT

https://bible.com/bible/116/psa.116.5-9.NLT

God does save me from death and He makes me holy and righteous by the blood of Jesus. By His Holy Spirit and His Word, He keeps me from stumbling and puts my soul at rest. One day, He will dry every tear but for now, He collects each one. Whether my sorrows cause my wandering or my wandering leads to sleepless nights, His mercies are new every morning. Great is His faithfulness!

“You’ve kept track of my every toss and turn through the sleepless nights.

Each tear entered in your ledger, each ache written in your book.”

Psalm 56:8 MSG

https://bible.com/bible/97/psa.56.8.MSG

“Yet I still dare to hope when I remember this: The faithful love of the Lord never ends!

His mercies never cease.

Great is his faithfulness; his mercies begin afresh each morning.

The Lord is good to those who depend on him, to those who search for him.”

Lamentations 3:21-23, 25 NLT

https://bible.com/bible/116/lam.3.21-25.NLT

When I simply wear the reading glasses, my vision becomes crystal clear. The small print jumps off the page and the blurring edges stand out in sharp contrast. I struggle most with the small print of medication labels and my “church Bible,” the one that fits nicely into my purse. Though trivial, both invite disaster if mishandled.

“Taste and see that the Lord is good.

Oh, the joys of those who take refuge in him!

Fear the Lord, you his godly people, for those who fear him will have all they need.

Even strong young lions sometimes go hungry, but those who trust in the Lord will lack no good thing.”

Psalms 34:8-10 NLT

https://bible.com/bible/116/psa.34.8-10.NLT

“So get rid of every kind of evil, and stop telling lies.

Don’t pretend to be something you are not.

Stop wanting what others have, and don’t speak against one another.

Like newborn babies, you should long for the pure milk of God’s word.

It will help you grow up as believers.

You can do this now that you have tasted how good the Lord is.”

1 Peter 2:1-3 NIRV

https://bible.com/bible/110/1pe.2.1-3.NIRV

“Shout with joy to the Lord, all the earth!

Worship the Lord with gladness.

Come before him, singing with joy.

Acknowledge that the Lord is God!

He made us, and we are his.

We are his people, the sheep of his pasture.

Enter his gates with thanksgiving; go into his courts with praise.

Give thanks to him and praise his name.

For the Lord is good.

His unfailing love continues forever, and his faithfulness continues to each generation.”

Psalms 100:1-5 NLT

https://bible.com/bible/116/psa.100.5.NLT

Chris Tomlin ~Good Good Father https://youtu.be/-ak0OoFBw3c