Psalms 69.5 O God, You know my foolishness; And my sins are not hidden from You.
Whenever someone finds out our sin, or something we said that we shouldn’t have, we are rightfully embarrassed and ashamed. There are times even now when I think of something I did years ago and it still causes me to blush with embarrassment because of the foolishness of it.
But with God, things are different. Like usual.
It is a good thing that God knows our foolishness, and that none of our sins are hidden from Him. If we truly understand this and take it to heart, it is very liberating and has many benefits:
- Freedom
- We can live free of the pretense of trying to be perfect or hide our foolishness from God and others. God already knows what we’re going to do. He is just waiting for us to understand that fact.
- We no longer have to live trying to measure up and earn God’s favor. God is fully aware of our weaknesses, our foolishness, our silly efforts, our habitual sins and our embarrassing effort to try and cover them up.
- God knows. Take comfort that He accepts you anyway. Be joyful that He forgives and patiently works with us knowing our next failure is a quick certainty. Experience the freedom and refreshment of realizing that God knows we will be foolish, knows we will sin, and yet loves us and saves us anyway.
Psalm 44. 21 Would not God search this out? For He knows the secrets of the heart.
- Accountability
- Accountability is a strong deterrent to our sin and bad decisions. If we were truly convinced that someone we admired and respected would see our sin, the embarrassment and shame of that fact would help us to say “no” more often.
- Think of the one person in your life today that you most admire; that you most would not want to disappoint; that you would be most ashamed if they found out about that sin (yeah, you know the one I’m talking about)… if they found out about that one sin you keep falling in to.
- How much more accountability is there knowing that our Creator, the God of the Universe knows all about these sins? Why is that not more of a deterrent? Probably because our knowledge of God is weak; our understanding of His character is shallow; the amount of time and fellowship we have with Him is insufficient.
- Our understanding that God knows, God sees and God cannot be deceived can be our greatest accountability factor if we cultivate this knowledge and spend time in His presence.
Jude 14-15 …”Behold, the Lord comes with ten thousands of His saints, to execute judgment on all, to convict all who are ungodly among them of all their ungodly deeds which they have committed in an ungodly way, and of all the harsh things which ungodly sinners have spoken against Him.”
- Honesty
- God knows how foolish we are. God knows our every sin even if we fool ourselves about it. This frees us to quit trying to put the best face on our sin.
- We don’t have to play word games with God. We don’t have to be “spin doctors” who confess sin but paint it in the best possible light so it doesn’t sound too bad. We don’t have to minimize our foolish mistakes and besetting sins when we speak to God.
- In our daily lives, we struggle to always downplay, minimize, sugarcoat and dress up our foolish sinfulness to avoid the embarrassment, loss of reputation, and discomfort that comes from it.
- We can quit all that nonsense with God. We are probably more foolish and more sinful that we will even admit when we ARE trying to be honest. God knows how we deceive even ourselves.
- So enjoy the liberating freedom of God’s knowledge and shed all the pretense and anxiety about what you really are. God already knows.
1 John 3. 20 For if our heart condemns us, God is greater than our heart, and knows all things.
- Forgiveness
- God knows how foolish we are, and how sinful we are, and yet He forgives us anyway. He knows with perfect clarity the depths to which we fall and yet He accepts us with open arms each time we sincerely repent and ask to be restored.
- God’s perfect knowledge of our sin and foolishness is not embarrassing; it does not drive us from Him. To the contrary, it draws us into the embrace of the One who loves us despite knowing the truth we so ably hide from those around us.
Ephesians 1. 7 In Him we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of sins, according to the riches of His grace…
- Dependence
- When we begin to understand that God has a crystal clear picture of who we really are, we become all the more dependent on Him.
- Dependent on Him to rescue us from ourselves
- Dependent on Him to forgive us
- Dependent on Him to accept us anyway
- Dependent on Him to teach us how to not be foolish and sinful
- Dependent on Him to give us the power to have victory over sin
- Dependent on Him to restore our joy and fellowship after the embarrassment and shame has run its course
2 Cor 3.5 Not that we are sufficient of ourselves to think of anything as being from ourselves, but our sufficiency is from God…
- When we begin to understand that God has a crystal clear picture of who we really are, we become all the more dependent on Him.
God knows us; better than we know ourselves. This should bring us great comfort and joy instead of timidity or embarrassment. Learn to live in the freedom and blessedness of our Great God’s perfect and complete understanding of who we really are.
Can we truly be changed by anyone who does not completely know and understand our true nature to begin with? We don’t know ourselves; we deceive ourselves. We are masters at deceiving others about our true nature. So that leaves God the sole Person who can change our lives, give us victory over sin and make us holy.
God, You know my innermost foolishness and my secret sin that I so masterfully hide from everyone around me. Forgive me. Restore me. Change me. May I start with today, resting in the freedom that You know all there is to know about me, and yet You still want to continue to love me. What more could I possibly want? Amen.
Contemplation: Are you open and honest with God about the frequency, nature, severity and even the pleasure you have in sin? Do you find it stressful or liberating to realize that God sees through all our attempts to downplay, justify or rationalize our sin?
Application: Some people just ignore their sin and hope God doesn’t notice. Others try to convince even God that their sin is not what it really is. Learn to be honest with God and enjoy the blessing of a clear conscience.
- What is the most obvious Bible truth you have learned today?
- What change in your life needs to be made concerning this truth?
- What specific thing will you do today to begin that change?