The Saturday Series -32- "Conscious"

(Friends:  Most Saturdays for the duration of this year, I plan on sharing a message that relates to the character and nature of God, and our response thereunto.  I hope you will find it helpful, and as always, thanks for allowing us to send the devotionals to you.  Glen).

The Saturday Series - 32

"Conscious"       

    

   

   

    As opposed to the false idols of the world, the God of Scripture is alive, conscious, and aware.

   "Their idols are silver and gold, the work of men's hands. They have mouths, but they speak not: eyes have they, but they see not" (Psalm 115:4-5).

    As the Psalmisth affirmed, "the Lord thinketh upon me" (Psalm 40:17).  Surely we desire to worship a God who knows we exist, or better yet, who knows He exists!  "I AM" declares the Lord, who in His very name confirms the awareness of His own existence and being (Exodus 3:14).  God is, and He knows it.  We do not worship a force, or a power, or an influence, or a wind without wisdom, will, and most importantly, winsome character.  Our faith rests in a living Person possessed of perfect self consciousness, and who also communicates the keen awareness unto and throughout the universe.

   "I am the LORD, and there is none else, there is no God beside Me: I girded thee, though thou hast not known Me, that they may know from the rising of the sun, and from the west, that there is none beside Me. I am the LORD, and there is none else.  I form the light, and create darkness: I make peace, and create evil: I the LORD do all these things" (Isaiah 45:4-7).

   "The counsel of the LORD standeth for ever, the thoughts of His heart to all generations" (Psalm 33:11).

    The importance of this truth lies in our proper and Biblical understanding of God, which then leads to truth about ourselves and other people.  Originally created in His image, we are also conscious and self aware beings.  The matter is highly problematic for us, however, due to sin and its accompanying darkness.  If we do not rightly know our Lord, we cannot rightly know humanity.  Thus, we must know Him in the terms in which He knows Himself, as revealed by the living Word, the Lord Jesus Christ, and the written Word, the Bible.

   "For God, who commanded the light to shine out of darkness, hath shined in our hearts, to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ" (II Corinthians 4:6).

    "The entrance of Thy words giveth light… God is light" (Psalm 119:130; I John 1:5).

   A perfectly conscious and self aware God seeks to reveal Himself to our far from perfect hearts and minds.  As we grow in such grace and truth, we begin to think rightly of ourselves and others.  "In Thy light shall we see light" (Psalm 36:9).  We are creatures of the heart and mind.  Our internals, as it were, must be right.  "Keep thy heart with all diligence, for out of it are the issues of life" (Proverbs 4:23).  Thus, we must be redeemed by the Lord Jesus and His light that reveals the truth about God and about ourselves.  As we walk with Him through His living presence and Word, we will increasingly discover the Spirit-enabled capacity to order our "internals" in accordance with the reality of who God is, who we are, and who others are in relationship to Him and ourselves.  Only in such Light will our own consciousness and self awareness begin to align with the Lord who perfectly knows Himself, and who can thus lead us to know ourselves in the glory of His revealed understanding.

"How precious also are Thy thoughts unto me, O God! how great is the sum of them!"

(Psalm 139:17)

Commit thy works unto the LORD, and thy thoughts shall be established."

(Proverbs 16:3)

Weekly Memory Verse 

    For Thou art my rock and my fortress; therefore for Thy name's sake lead me, and guide me.

(Psalm 31:3)