Daily Devotional For Sunday, January 26, 2025
Good morning Southside and anyone else who is reading this devotional. Today is Sunday – the “Lord’s Day” – as we say. But truthfully, every day is the Lord’s Day. I hope you choose to show your love and gratitude to Him by attending a worship service to sing praises to God and then to learn from His Word biblical truth to apply to your life. One of the attributes the Bible gives to God is omniscience, which means, “all-knowing.” Look at the following verses:
- Hebrews 4:13, “And there is no creature hidden from His sight, but all things are open and laid bare to the eyes of Him with whom we have to do” (NASB).
- Proverbs 15:3, The eyes of the Lord are in every place, Watching the evil and the good” (NASB).
- Jeremiah 23:24, “Can a man hide himself in hiding places, So I do not see him?” declares the Lord. Do I not fill the heavens and the earth?” declares the Lord” (NASB).
- Psalm 139:1-4, “O Lord, You have searched me and known me. (2) You know when I sit down and when I rise up; You understand my thoughts from afar. (3) You scrutinize my path and my lying down, And are intimately acquainted with all my ways. (4) Even before there is a word on my tongue, Behold, O Lord, You know it all.” (NASB).
- Psalm 69:5, “O God, it is You who knows my folly, And my wrongs are not hidden from You” (NASB).
- Jeremiah 16:17, “For My eyes are on all their ways; they are not hidden from My face, nor is their iniquity concealed from My eyes” (NASB).
- Psalm 90:8, “You have placed our iniquities before You, Our secret sins in the light of Your presence” (NASB).
- 1 Corinthians 4:5, “Therefore do not go on passing judgment before the time, but wait until the Lord comes who will both bring to light the things hidden in the darkness and disclose the motives of men’s hearts; and then each man’s praise will come to him from God” (NASB).
Like wayward children we are not conscious that God sees all, hears all and knows all past, present and future about us. Nothing is hidden from Him. If you have ever raised children and you catch them doing something wrong or something they should not be doing or lying, you confront them. Many children will initially deny any wrong and even at times attempt to convince their parents, sometimes very convincingly, they are wrong. And if that does not work, they resort to blame. We see this in the Garden of Eden, Eve blamed the snake and Adam blamed God and Eve. Attempting to hide something from someone, especially God, is rather arrogant and forgive me . . . stupid. To deny it to God either directly – “No I didn’t do or say that” – or indirectly – never feeling guilt, confessing to God about it, asking for forgiveness and repenting – is calling God a liar. That takes a lot of pride, gall and conceit to do.
Have you ever seen children deny their obvious guilt? It can be amusing when you ask, “Did you eat those cookies?” and they solemnly shake their heads, even as their faces are covered with crumbs. If there is a group, they learn very early that if they all stick together and keep repeating the same lie, it all somehow seems a little easier. This propensity to deny our wickedness in the hope that no one sees it, carries over into adulthood. We convince ourselves that if no one sees it, there will be no negative consequences for us or anyone else. But Isaiah 47:10 says differently. Read it here: “You thought that your evil deeds would keep you safe. You said, `Nobody sees me!’ You think that you are very wise and that you know everything.But your wisdom has deceived you. You say, `Here I am! There is nobody as good as I am’” (ESY).
Isaiah 47:10 says that we outsmart ourselves with that kind of thinking. Every one of our actions is seen by God and will eventually have some kind of consequence for ourselves and others. I encourage you to make choices that honor God. When you do that, you will bring blessings to yourself and other people, too. God is watching us all the time. Because He is invisible, we tend to forget that. There is nothing hidden from Him, not even our sinful thoughts. What do you think of this article below:
“How would your behavior change if you thought someone was watching you? Two recent studies suggest that you might start acting more honestly. A 2006 study at a university faculty lounge offered coffee and tea to professors that for years had used an unsupervised honor system. The rules were clear: serve yourself and then put the money you owed into a box. For ten weeks, though, the experimenters put a hard-to-miss poster near the box. One version of the poster featured pretty flowers; the other version had a pair of eyes glaring out at the viewer. The image alternated between flowers and eyes each week. People paid almost three times more on "eyes" weeks than on "flowers" weeks.
A later study found the same results—only this time watching eyes changed the behavior of potential bicycle thieves. Researchers put signs with a large pair of menacing eyes and the message "Cycle thieves: we are watching you" by the bike racks at Newcastle University in England. They then monitored bike thefts for two years and found a 62% drop in thefts at locations with the signs.
But there was an interesting twist to this experiment. While theft rates went down 62% in the "we are watching you" racks, in other places in the university it shot up by 65%—an almost perfect offset. In other words, the thieves kept stealing bikes; they just went down the street to get away from those eyeballs of judgment and accountability” (Source: Priceonomics blog, "How Honest Are You When No One Is Watching You?" (1-30-14); John Metcalfe, "Posters of Angry Eyes Actually Scare Off Bike Thieves," The Atlantic (4-29-13).
God is paying attention to whether you choose carnal impulses or choose to invite His Spirit to lead and direct your life. Your choices matter.
Questions To Consider
- If there were a camera on you 24/7, would that change your behavior at all? If so, in what ways? If not, why?
- If there was a loud speaker attached to you and every time you had a sinful or ungodly or unholy thought, it blasted out it publicly, would that change your thoughts? Why or why not?
- Whether we realize it or not, unbelievers are also watching us and we can be responsible for them stumbling. How often are you conscious of this?
- As an adult, do you readily admit your sins, mistakes, faults and etc. to others? To God?
- Do you ever blame something or someone for your sins? Why or why not?
Scripture To Meditate On: Hebrews 4:13, “There is nothing that can be hid from God; everything in all creation is exposed and lies open before His eyes. And it is to Him that we must all give an account of ourselves” (GNT).
Prayer To Pray: “Heavenly Father, thank You for Your Word—for its truth and the light it brings to my choices. I pray to have the courage to choose You in all those places where I have perhaps been previously reluctant. Today, I come to You to say, “I’m sorry. Please forgive me. I choose You—in every part of who I am.” Help me to admit my sins, confess my sins, and repent from my sins. I do not want to blame anyone, especially You nor do I want to call You a liar. I love You Jesus. In Jesus’ name, Amen”
I love you Southside!--Pastor Kelly