Exposed

Hebrews 4:13-16

And no creature is hidden from his sight, but all are naked and exposed to the eyes of him to whom we must give account.

Since then we have a great high priest who has passed through the heavens, Jesus, the Son of God, let us hold fast our confession. For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but one who in every respect has been tempted as we are, yet without sin. Let us then with confidence draw near to the throne of grace, that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need.

Chapter 4 of Hebrews is a rich chapter, especially in the closing verses. Here, we are reminded of God’s omnipresence and omniscience. He knows EVERYTHING about us, from our mannerisms, random facts about us, all the good we have done, the terrible pick up lines we have used and so much more, including all of our sin. We cannot hide anything from God. He knows what we have done and what we will do. He knows our intentions even. Family, I have to be honest, this verse straight up scares me. The fact that God knows everything about me, all of my fears that I won’t let go, all of my ugly and parasitic sin, my willing captivity by addictions at times, my lack of trust in Him, my refusal to seek Him with everything, ignoring His calling for me, my motives, the memories that I don’t release.. He knows all of it. This scares me. It makes me realize how badly I need a Savior because when I compare my nasty and gross and repulsive life and then examine how glorious and perfect God is, how untainted He is, His love, His might, His knowledge, Wisdom, and so much more, I realize that though I may seem good in man’s eyes or even in my own, I will never ever come near how great God is. I am no where near what He desires me to be. I believe that we measure our lives so frequently against the lives of other believers, whether pastors, mentors or just random people at church, we measure our personal relationships with God against the relationships that others have with Him. Why? Does this make us better in God’s sight if we are “better” Christians than someone else? NO!!! I actually believe that this distracts us from our own walks while setting standards and goals that are imperfect because they are based upon imperfect people. We figure that as long as we are “better Christians” than some people that we are set for heaven... Truth is, that means nothing besides immaturity in our walks. Instead of looking for direction with our walks from flawed humans, let’s just go to God. Let’s go to Him and truly walk with Him instead of frequently settling for where we are in our walks..

Jesus can relate to you! God knows exactly what you are going through and cares about you and desires to help you no matter how big or small the problem may be. Also, we are reminded that it is not impossible to not sin. Jesus did it. We are to strive to be like Jesus. We are to let GOD control our lives in EVERY aspect, not just one or two. He desires to help us out. Why then do we so often reject His help? Why do reject His mercy and grace and love and purpose and satisfaction and so much more when we are up to our necks in pain, misery, sorrow, mistrust, addiction, just to name a few??? Is it because we do not want to surrender or lives over to God? That we believe that if we give God our lives, He will take advantage of us? That if we trust Him things will not go as planned and we will fall hard? That if we seek His desire for our lives, He will may discard all of our hopes and dreams? That we will turn into some Jesus freak that everyone makes fun of? That we may actually have to give up our sin if we give Him our lives? Let’s let go and give our lives to the only one who is trustworthy, the Perfect and Holy One, God Almighty. He will give us everything we need. He has mercy and grace and love more abundant than ever known. What do we have to lose? Nothing... It may feel like everything, but in retrospect, it is nothing. He gave up so much for us, yet so often we are not willing to give Him anything. Let’s go to the One who understands. The One who seeks our betterment. The One who loves us, regardless of our faults and failures, and forgives us still. 

How great is our God, I will sing His praise with my core being outward everyday.