Psalm 139:1-6 and 13-16 reads
…
O Lord, you have examined my
heart and know everything about me. You
know when I sit down or stand up. You
know my thoughts even when I’m far away.
You see me when I travel and when I rest at home. You know everything I do. You know what I am going to say even
before I say it, Lord. You go before me
and follow me. You place your
hand of blessing on my head. Such
knowledge is too wonderful for me, too great for me to understand! … You
made all the delicate, inner parts of my body and knit me together in my
mother’s womb. Thank you for making me
so wonderfully complex! Your workmanship
is marvelous—how well I know it. You
watched me as I was being formed in utter seclusion, as I was woven together in
the dark of the womb. You saw me before
I was born. Every day of my life was
recorded in your book. Every moment was
laid out before a single day had passed.
Strangely, my name is nowhere
in that passage. That is, it does NOT
say, “O [Michael], you have examined my heart and know everything about
me.” It does NOT say, “[Michael] made
all the delicate, inner part of my body and knit me together in my mother’s
womb.” It does NOT say, “[Michael] saw
me before I was born. Every day of my
life was recorded in [Michael’s] book.”
For the record, it doesn’t say your name in there either.
The reason this struck me in
my reading through Hosea 1 – 6, Psalms 136 – 142, and Jeremiah 37 – 43 is
because I have a confession … I can’t stand when people don’t do what I think
they should. I hate it even worse when
people ask my advice, I give it, and then they don’t do what my advice
entailed. I realize that sounds arrogant. No … actually, it IS arrogant. That’s the issue. It’s been an issue for me for a
lifetime. It really bothers me when
people don’t do what I think they should.
In reflection, it’s really as ridiculous as it sounds, but I don’t think
I can say it’s unique. Something tells
me we all have a similar battle. For
some reason I … we … think my (our) advice is somehow either unique or
accurate. The passage I parked on this
week, though, sheds light into what makes this thinking absurd.
Psalm 139 is a very familiar
passage to many of us. So much so, that
I was actually not planning to write on it this week for fear that anything
that I could come up with would be too cliché or unoriginal. But as always, God helped me realize
something through some real life circumstances that otherwise I would have
looked past … and missed a critically important gem for me … something I
really, really needed to realize.
Psalm 139 is amazing in its
plainness and clarity. God formed us
from before we were born, in fact as we were molded in our mothers’ wombs. More aptly, even before then, but you get the
point. God knows everything about
us. He knows what we’re thinking, even
before we think it. He knows everywhere
we are, and everything we do. He knows
what we’re going to say and even put the words there. He has laid out every day of our life,
including those that haven’t even happened yet.
Not even every day, in fact … every moment. And, that’s true of every single one of us.
But not me … I didn’t, don’t
and won’t do any of those things that God did, does or will do. I can’t.
I’ll never be able to because of my lack of omniscience, omnipotence,
omnipresence … oh, and preexistence.
Lots of strikes against me.
So why should my opinion
matter, then? Why is it that I get
balled up when someone doesn’t do what I think they should or what I tell them
to when they ask me? Why do I think I
have any remote semblance of context that might be helpful to someone? And therein lies the preposterousness of my
attitude. Not so with God. He knows everything about us including things
that aren’t yet revealed about us. So,
who’s better to give advice and who’s opinion should matter? Yup … His.
That doesn’t negate the fact
that we should or could give our advice at times, particularly when asked. God spoke through a donkey in the Bible, so
no doubt He could also speak through us if He wants. But we also need to realize that He might not
choose to. Or, He might speak through us
something meant to be a counterpoint to something else someone else might bring
up that is the real direction He intends.
Or, He might allow us to speak up simply because of His love that allows
us free will, including the will to choose contrary to good advice, and thereby
have the recipient learn or grow from it.
When we give advice, we
should do so after prayer and listening for God’s voice. We should do so without any preconception
that our point of view is THE point of view.
We should recognize that we don’t have ANY of the attributes of God as
articulated in Psalm 139 and therefore anything we suggest could be devoid of
proper context or even proper intentionality.
We should give the advice lovingly, graciously and freely, without
expectation of anything in return … including the return that comes from us
seeing our “amazing” advice carried out so we can bask in it. We need to realize that God can be using our
advice precisely so that the receiver does NOT use it … which could be squarely
in His will somehow in a way that He alone knows.
You can give without loving,
but you can’t love without giving.
Giving advice … when done through the ministry of the Holy Spirit and
through loving, pure intentions … is a loving thing to do. Expecting the recipient to listen or do
something in return is NOT love. Let’s
ask God to give us a heart of love for others and one another wherein we
graciously allow others to have our advice whether they choose to follow it or
not. Then, let’s ask Him to change our
hearts so that we are willing to accept the ultimate outcome.
Because He knows us, in every
way there is to know …
MR
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