GENESIS 16:1\u201316<\/b><\/p>\n
She [Hagar] gave this name to the Lord who spoke to her: \u201cYou are the God who sees me,\u201d for she said, \u201cI have now seen the One who sees me\u201d<\/i><\/p>\n
(Genesis 16:13)<\/i>.<\/p>\n
Since God\u2019s care for us extends beyond election into every aspect of our life in Christ, it is appropriate to consider the providence of God. One of Paul\u2019s underlying themes in Romans 8 is God\u2019s overarching care for His children. The word providence<\/i> comes from two Latin words: pro<\/i> (before) and video<\/i> (to see). Thus providence<\/i> means \u201csee before.\u201d God\u2019s providence is intimately connected with the fact that He sees all the events in time from the beginning, because He is the creator of time and of all events in time.<\/p>\n
God Sees All Things<\/i><\/b><\/p>\n
When I was a child, my mother told me to be sure and behave myself, because God was watching me at all times. This made me very nervous. I did not want God to look at me all the time. I wanted God to overlook me and what I was doing, at least some of the time. We are all like that. We have things to hide that we don\u2019t want God or anyone else to find out about.<\/p>\n
I think that this fact is one of the main reasons why people find the doctrine of God\u2019s providence unnerving. The Bible tells us that God knows us intimately. He is fully conscious of everything that takes place in world history, and in our own lives. We don\u2019t like this. Like Adam and Eve, we hide from God.<\/p>\n
The biblical doctrine of the providence of God starts with the idea that God sees all things, but it does not end there. The God who sees all things is not an absent spectator, but is actively involved in His creation. He is not only the God who sees, but also the God who sustains. In the Old Testament, the Hebrews speak of God as the One who creates all things. The Hebrew word used for God\u2019s creating is barah<\/i>. This word calls attention to God\u2019s awesome power of calling into being the things that are not. But barah<\/i> also implies God\u2019s sustaining and upholding all things by His power. It implies that God is with us all the time.<\/p>\n
CORAM DEO<\/b><\/p>\n
Apart from God\u2019s grace, our tendency is to flee from God\u2019s all-seeing gaze. How futile is that flight! Why not sooner, rather than later, realize that they are benevolent, heavenly eyes. Focus your prayer time today upon thanking God for being the One who knows you best and loves you most.<\/p>\n
For further study: Psalm 102:18\u201322; 139:1\u201310; Isaiah 45:5\u201312; Colossians 1:15\u201317; Hebrews 1:1\u20133<\/i><\/p>\n
wednesday<\/p>\n
august<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
GENESIS 16:1\u201316 She [Hagar] gave this name to the Lord who spoke to her: \u201cYou are the God who sees me,\u201d for she said, \u201cI have now seen the One who sees me\u201d (Genesis 16:13). Since God\u2019s care for us extends beyond election into every aspect of our life in Christ, it is appropriate to … Continue reading “THE GOD WHO SUSTAINS US”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-10989","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-sermons"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10989","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=10989"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10989\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=10989"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=10989"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=10989"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}