What does it mean to you that God is watching and listening to you?

In our reading for the day the psalmist asks some rhetorical questions of his readers to challenge the way that they are thinking about God. His comments are targeted at those who are in rebellion against God. It is as though he is asking the general question: Do you really believe that God can’t see what you are doing and hear what you are saying?

That is exactly how some people believe; they believe that God can’t see or hear them. It reminds me of the baby that learns to play peek-a-boo. When they cover their eyes, they think they are invisible and can’t be seen. The wicked seem to think the same thing; they think that because they can’t see God that He can’t see them.

Sadly for them, that ignorance may cost them a lot more than they would like to pay. God is always watching and listening to us. There is never an instant when I am out of His presence. For the wicked this would be a terrifying thing for them to understand. But most of the wicked don’t really care what God thinks anyway.

For the Christian this is a much more sobering thought that God sees and hears everything. I just wish that we would truly understand the depth of what it means. We too often trivialize these things about God that make Him so great in our lives. We might understand it as it relates to sin and it might keep us from certain kinds of sin but not to the level that it should.

When we sin, God is watching. When we sin, it hurts God’s heart. It hurts His heart because it removes us from the kind of relationship with Him that He created us for. What we need to do is become clearer in our minds of the absolute truth that He is with us while we are sinning. It needs to be as real as if it were our mother, or spouse, or children standing there as we were committing that sin. Then it might keep us from more sins.

Another aspect of this truth is that if we were truly aware of God’s presence it would also keep us from much of the fear and doubt that might fill our minds. If I could truly embrace the fact that God is seeing and hearing everything about my life, I would be able to rest in the most difficult of life’s circumstances and challenges. Our problem is that we can’t see Jesus and so we might not always act as if He really is there with us.

It takes faith to believe God when He said that He would never leave us nor forsake us. In the stillness of our minds and hearts we must just believe that He sees and hears us; there can be no question about that. Then we need just begin to embrace the image of Him in our presence at all times. Jesus, teach us to see You at all times and in all places.

Read: Judges 4:1-5:31; Luke 22:35-53; Psalm 94:1-23; Proverbs 14:3-4