A Brief Meditation for the Month

May 2019

Through the prophet Jeremiah, God addresses all of us with the words, “let him that glorieth glory in this, that he understandeth and knoweth me…” These words emphasize the importance of a personal knowledge of God, and a personal understanding of who God is. For the child of God, one of the most comforting facts to be known about God, is his omniscience. God sees and knows with infinite perfection everything that can possibly be seen or known at any point throughout time and eternity. He knows the end from the very beginning. There is simply nothing that is unknown to God. The essence of God’s knowledge, however, is not to be considered as like to that of our limited knowing. With us knowledge may increase and decrease; it may be obtained or lost. God possesses eternal, intimate, infinite, inexhaustible, unfathomable, knowledge from eternity past to eternity to come. As finite creatures, we can not possibly comprehend the extent of divine knowledge. However, the child of God rests by faith upon the immutable fact that God knows everything perfectly.

There are occasions in the Christian’s experience when it is difficult to understand the mysteries of providence, accompanied by times when it is difficult to express the innermost feelings and desires of the heart. The Psalmist experienced this. He said, “Lord, all my desire is before thee; and my groaning is not hid from thee.” Psalm 38:9. Desires are secret, while groans testify to an inability to verbally express the feelings; yet how wonderful it is that God understands perfectly what no one else is even aware of. The great apostle Paul had to acknowledge that there are times when the most experienced of God’s children, don’t know how or what to pray for—they can only groan, “with groanings which cannot be uttered.” Romans 8:26. Paul, however, reminds us of the divine knowledge and understanding of such groaning. The Holy Spirit, who searches the heart, is the divine interpreter of what the poor afflicted child of God feels or experiences but cannot rationally or verbally express. The great missionary, Hudson Taylor, was so low in his spirit at one time during his missionary labours in China that he confessed, he could not read, he could not study, he could not preach, he could not pray, he could barely think, but he said, “I can trust.” The great God who knows, is the God we can trust when everything around us and within us seems confusing. The weakest child of grace may enjoy the consolation contained in the words of the Psalmist, “For he knoweth our frame; he remembereth that we are dust.” Psalm 103:14.

The experiences of our blessed Saviour in his holy, sinless, humanity, while he lived among people just like ourselves, were as real as ours. Therefore, as the exalted intercessor for his people, he is uniquely qualified to understand their needs and represent them in the presence of God. When they sigh and groan in their afflictions and trials, no one can better appreciate their needs than the Lord Jesus Christ. When a poor sinner under a deep sense of guilt and condemnation finds it difficult to express in words the inner wretchedness felt, the compassionate, tender-hearted Saviour understands. Likewise, the Holy Spirit who created the inner grief through conviction of sin, knows perfectly what it all means. Yes, dear friend, God knows. The omniscient God understands. Do not be afraid to go and open your heart to him, even if you feel it is breaking within you. Be confident of his understanding.

G. G. Hutton.