Psalm 33:13-15 “From heaven the LORD looks down and observes the children of Adam, From his dwelling place he surveys all who dwell on earth. The One who fashioned together their hearts is the One who knows all their works.” This episode talks about how God is always watching us and if our lives would be different if we remembered this fact all throughout our day. Music:"Adding the Sun" Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com) Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 4.0 License http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
God Observes His Children
Psalm 33:13-15 “From heaven the LORD looks down and observes the children of Adam, From his dwelling place he surveys all who dwell on earth. The One who fashioned together their hearts is the One who knows all their works.”
God looks down upon us from heaven, this is not news to us. However, it may be something we don’t think about enough. Do you remember this when you are going through your day? Do you stop and think about how God is observing you from His dwelling place when you are going about your day? I wonder if we would do half of the things that we do, if were thought about this more. The One who fashioned together our hearts is the One who knows all of our works. God knows all that you do.
God is not just sitting around in heaven enjoying the good life. He is not just sitting back and enjoying all the praise from the angels and saints. He is alert, always watching us and seeing where He needs to step in and help. He is also not just looking at some of us. He is observing all of the children of Adam. That is every person on earth. I think sometimes we can think that if someone does not believe the same things that we believe that God is not paying any attention to them. God is observing all of us. He knows everything that everyone on earth does. I am sure He is not pleased with a lot that He sees. I know I have read many things about how the sins of the world grieve Him. He loves His children and does not want to lose a single one of them.
Even though you probably already knew that God was looking down on you from above, does hearing that change anything for you? When I read that, even though I know this, it serves as a reminder for me. It makes me slow down and evaluate my days. It has me reviewing the last few weeks. How have I spent my time? What have I been doing and how have I been acting? When I look back over my last few weeks, am I proud of how I lived them? Are their any parts of them that I wouldn’t want God to have witnessed? For me, my answer would be yes, there are parts that I am not happy with. How about you? How have you been living and are there things you would have done differently had you been consciously thinking about God observing all you do? I wonder if things would have been different if I had kept the thought that God is always watching me in the forefront of my mind?
It’s not even big things that I am talking about. It’s the little decisions we make that can add up over time. Or the little things that can lead to you missing out of important things. For instance, one thing I am not proud of over the last couple of weeks is that I haven’t really had a plan at dinner time. My son would ask, “What is for dinner?” and I would have no idea. I would ask what he wanted and then make ramen noodles or penne pasta, maybe a frozen pizza. I usually didn’t have any meat thawed. Whenever he asked, I would feel bad about not planning in advance and then vow to do better tomorrow. However, this went on for a week or two. When I look back on those weeks I am not proud of the way I showed up at dinner time or the fact that God observed it all. However, I decided this week that I am going to plan our meals in advance. I’m going to be proud of how I show up at dinner time.
I actually have a book called Saving Dinner by Leanne Ely. This book is amazing because it has weekly meal plans in it. It gives you the shopping list, the recipes and it even tells you what you will make for side dishes with each meal. It also has the recipes broken up into seasons of the year. I made a decision that I was going to make sure I knew what was for dinner and that I was providing a healthy meal for my family. I printed the shopping list, and went shopping. Last night was my first night going with this plan. I made apple chicken with baked potatoes and baked butternut squash.
Do you remember how I said that it isn’t necessarily the big things, but the little things that cause you to miss out on other things? Well, last night I made a nice dinner and I asked the kids to sit down with me for dinner. Two of them did and one of my sons even tried something new, which he doesn’t do often. After dinner while we were still at the table I asked if they wanted to play a game. They said no, but then thought about it for a minute and changed their minds. Last night I got to sit at the table and play a board game with two of my sons for over 2 hours. Would this have happened if I hadn’t made dinner and asked them to join me at the table? I don’t know, probably not, as it hasn’t happened in several months.
It is not that I haven’t made dinner in several months its just that a series of small things have lead up to us not having dinner together much as a family. It’s amazing how it happens when I think about it. We were having family time every night for a bit and having dinner together. Then something happens and we make an exception one night, then another night and then the next thing I know we don’t see the boys because they are on their electronics and eating dinner in their rooms. Tony and I are just looking around and wondering how we got back to this. It is not just one thing it is a series of small decisions that don’t seem like a big deal at the time.
What are these small decisions in your life that are causing you to miss out on some pretty great things? Maybe it’s not meal times for you. Maybe you have been spending time on other things instead spending time in prayer. Maybe it started with just hitting snooze that one time, and now you spend 30 minutes hitting snooze and miss our on 30 minutes of time with the Lord. Or maybe haven’t been calling your parents, children, or friends as much. You used to call them regularly, but then something happened and over time you got out of the habit. Now you are nervous to call because it has been so long. Think of all the great conversations you are missing out on by not calling.
I don’t know what your thing is. I bet if you look at your life through the lens of “God is observing me from heaven and He knows all my works,” you can think of a thing or two that you may want to change. Why not take the opportunity to work on that thing today? Sometimes when we get to this time of year, we may notice things we want to change and we let ourselves off the hook by saying we will change that in the new year. Why wait until January 1st to make changes that you know you want to make. Especially if there are things you are not proud of. If you are looking over the last few weeks of your life and you can think of times when you aren’t proud of how you showed up, then make a decision right now to change how you will show up the next time you are in that circumstance. Don’t put off until tomorrow, what you can do today. Tomorrow is not guaranteed to any of us.
Dear Heavenly Father, I ask that you bless all those listening to this episode today. Lord, help us to be aware of you throughout our whole day. Help us to not only keep you in the front of our minds, but to keep the truth that you are always observing us at the front of our minds as well. Help us to make the right decisions even when they are difficult. Please help us to always show up in a way that makes you proud. Shine a light on any area of our life that needs to change. Any area that has slowly become a less than version of what it once was. We love you Lord and we are so very grateful to have you in our lives. We are so grateful that we have a loving Father who keeps a constant watchful eye on us. Thank you! You are so very amazing and we ask all of this in accordance with your will and in Jesus’ holy name, Amen.
Thank you so much for joining me on this journey to walk boldly with Jesus. If you are enjoying this podcast and you have not subscribed you are welcome to do so. This will ensure the daily episodes get downloaded right to your device. Also, if you would share this podcast with others you think might enjoy it, that would really help get the word out to even more people who want to hear it. I look forward to spending time with you tomorrow. Have a blessed day!