{"id":21277,"date":"2017-01-26T00:10:10","date_gmt":"2017-01-26T08:10:10","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/lccredding.com\/lcc\/?p=9975"},"modified":"2017-01-26T00:10:10","modified_gmt":"2017-01-26T08:10:10","slug":"january-26-2017","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lccredding.org\/church\/2017\/01\/26\/january-26-2017\/","title":{"rendered":"January 26, 2017"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

\u201cO Lord, how great are Your works! Your thoughts are very deep.\u201d<\/em> Psalm 92:5<\/span><\/p>\n

Cultivating Awe and Reverence for God, Day 26<\/span><\/em><\/h3>\n

His Thoughts<\/span><\/strong><\/h2>\n

God seems very busy to me. When I consider all that He is doing at any given moment, it boggles my mind how He keeps up with it all. How does He have time to think about anything? If I have more than one or two things to do at one time, I am overwhelmed, unable to truly focus on even one task. If I can hear the TV, I can\u2019t read. If the car radio is on, I can\u2019t pray. If I am busy with my pity party, I can\u2019t love others.<\/span><\/p>\n

My favorite thing to do is to sit and think. Many of you would hate my favorite day: going somewhere alone, say, the beach or a mountain meadow or a trickling stream, with just a thermos of coffee, my Bible, and my thoughts. And yes, it\u2019s really true: I love to think about the Lord. Think HARD about Him. Think deep thoughts. Just sit with His Word open before me and meditate on Him and what I know about Him, and all that He has done in the lives of people in the Bible, and in the world today. This is a wonderful way to cultivate awe and reverence for God\u2014to think upon Him.<\/span><\/p>\n

Today\u2019s Scripture makes me wonder what God Himself thinks about. It is clear from the Word that He has \u201cvery deep\u201d thoughts. What is a deep thought for God? \u201c’For My thoughts are not your thoughts, nor are your ways My ways,\u2019 says the Lord. \u2018For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are My ways higher than your ways, and My thoughts than your thoughts\u2019\u201d<\/em> (Isaiah 55:8-9). As always, we see a clear distinction between Him and ourselves. We know that He doesn\u2019t need \u201cquiet time\u201d to think His thoughts. He doesn\u2019t need to \u201cget alone,\u201d for He already sits high above all else. What would God, Who knows everything and doesn\u2019t need to think anything over or make any decisions, Who doesn\u2019t need to ponder life or people or outcomes or consequences\u2014anything at all\u2014think about?<\/span><\/p>\n

The multitude of His thoughts are about us. \u201cMany, O Lord my God, are Your wonderful works which You have done; and Your thoughts toward us cannot be recounted to You in order; if I would declare and speak of them, they are more than can be numbered\u201d<\/em> (Psalm 40:5). And we don\u2019t have to have our life \u201call together\u201d or be super saints for Him to think on us: \u201cBut I am poor and needy; yet the Lord thinks upon me\u201d<\/em> (Psalm 40:17a).<\/span><\/p>\n

His thoughts about us are not only numerous and very deep, but they are precious: \u201cHow precious also are Your thoughts to me, O God! How great is the sum of them! If I should count them, they would be more in number than the sand; when I awake, I am still with You\u201d<\/em> (Psalm 119:17-18). Just what are these precious thoughts?\u00a0“‘For I know the thoughts that I think toward you,\u2019 says the Lord, \u2018thoughts of peace and not of evil, to give you a future and a hope”‘<\/em>(Jeremiah 29:11).<\/span><\/p>\n

He also thinks about His plans and purposes. \u201cThe Lord of hosts has sworn, saying, \u2018Surely, as I have thought, so it shall come to pass, and as I have purposed, so it shall stand\u2019\u201d<\/em> (Isaiah 14:24).<\/span><\/p>\n

Of course, in this life we\u2019ll never know the specifics of God\u2019s thoughts. The book of Job ponders God and His ways, and the summary is this: \u201cCan you search out the deep things of God? Can you find out the limits of the Almighty? They are higher than heaven\u2014what can you do? Deeper than Sheol\u2014what can you know? Their measure is longer than the earth, and broader than the sea\u201d<\/em> (Job 11:7-9).<\/span><\/p>\n

Thanks be to God: He sits enthroned above all, knowing all things, having countless, precious, deep thoughts about us. Because He is unlimited in all His attributes, then we know that His thoughts are more often than we can imagine, more precious than we can hope for, and deeper than anything we can relate to.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cFather, we see that Your deepest thoughts are unwavering love. Oh, that we could love You even a fraction of how much You love us. In the beloved Name of Jesus. Amen.\u201d<\/span><\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u201cO Lord, how great are Your works! Your thoughts are very deep.\u201d Psalm 92:5 Cultivating Awe and Reverence for God, […]<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[47],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-21277","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-women"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p92wjD-5xb","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lccredding.org\/church\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21277","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lccredding.org\/church\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lccredding.org\/church\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lccredding.org\/church\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lccredding.org\/church\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=21277"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.lccredding.org\/church\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21277\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lccredding.org\/church\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=21277"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lccredding.org\/church\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=21277"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lccredding.org\/church\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=21277"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}