Always Watching

"Is it a fast like this which I choose,
a day for a man to humble himself?

Is it for bowing one’s head like a reed

And for spreading out sackcloth and ashes as a bed?

Will you call this a fast, even an acceptable day to the LORD?

“Is this not the fast which I choose,
To loosen the bonds of wickedness,
To undo the bands of the yoke,
And to let the oppressed go free
And break every yoke?
"Is it not to divide your bread with the hungry
And bring the homeless poor into the house;
When you see the naked, to cover him;
And not to hide yourself from your own flesh?
“Then your light will break out like the dawn,
And your recovery will speedily spring forth;
And your righteousness will go before you;
The glory of the LORD will be your rear guard.
“Then you will call, and the LORD will answer;
You will cry, and He will say, ‘Here I am.’
(Isaiah 58:5-9)

We can't hide ourselves from our own flesh and expect to draw near to God. We have to come before Him in honesty and truth, trusting in His forgiveness and everlasting lovingkindness...

He already knows it all anyway.

For us to hide is showing that we really do not believe that He is omnipresent and omniscient thus we are denying who He is and trying to convince ourselves that we can pull one over on God.

Hmmmm yeh, like that's gonna happen!

We become just like the child with chocolate all over their face that says, "No, Mommy I not get cake!"

Woe to those who deeply hide their plans from the LORD,

and whose deeds are done in a dark place,

and they say, 'Who sees us?'

or 'Who knows us?'

Isaiah 29:15

In Genesis 16:13 we are introduced to a name of God. The name is El Roi, and it means God sees (you can read a little bit more of my thoughts on this particular name of God at my through the Bible blog ).

Our God sees. He is a God who sees. He doesn't miss a thing. We cannot hide from Him.

Where can I go from Your Spirit?
Or where can I flee from Your presence?
If I ascend to heaven, You are there;
If I make my bed in Sheol, behold, You are there.
If I take the wings of the dawn,
If I dwell in the remotest part of the sea,
Even there Your hand will lead me,
And Your right hand will lay hold of me.
If I say, “Surely the darkness will overwhelm me,
And the light around me will be night,”
Even the darkness is not dark to You,
And the night is as bright as the day.
Darkness and light are alike to You.

Psalm 139:7-12

There just in no darkness dark enough to hide from God in. Jonah tried to run and hide in the belly of ship and then God stuck him in the belly of a fish and sent him to the darkest depths of the sea and let him know that, yep, He could still see him. There is no where to flee from His presence. He is always watching us.

For the ways of a man are before the eyes of the LORD,
And He watches all his paths.

Proverbs 5:21

The thought of someone always watching us can creep us out. I have this weird thing that before I use the bathroom I check behind the shower curtain. I don't know why. I just do. I have a disturbing feeling that I am going to use the bathroom and then find out someone was in there with me and I didn't know it. So if there is a shower curtain or closet door in the bathroom at your house and I come and visit and I have to go, yes I am pulling it back and opening the door, but don't worry I will never tell anyone about the soap scum in the tub and all the naked barbie dolls and molded squeaky toys or multiple wadded up washrags. Nor will I reveal the mismatched sloppily folded towels full of holes or the why in the worlds is that in the bathroom stuff (PS I am just describing my own bathroom, lol). I promise I won't. I just want to potty in peace and I can't until I take a peek before I pee.

Knowing that God is always watching us should bring us comfort. It truly does me. In many ways. It keeps me from making choices that I might have made if I thought I could have hid it and it also helps me from reacting wrongly in a situation because I can calm myself by knowing that God saw what happened and He will deal with it.

There really is no reason for us not to be completely open and honest with God. Every time I think of the verse in Isaiah 58 about not hiding ourselves from our own flesh I think of a Chris Rock stand up I watched once long ago (no I was not always a Christian). In the stand up, he was sharing about getting caught cheating on his wife and his wife comes to him and keeps saying "I know you did it, just admit it!" So when I think of trying to hide my sin from God I hear Chris Rock speaking for his wife "I know you did it, just admit it!"

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.

Hebrews 4:13

He knows you did it, just admit it!

Yes God is always watching you, but not in a psycho stalker kind of way, but in the I'll never leave you or forsake you kind of way :-)

 ...for He Himself has said,

“I WILL NEVER DESERT YOU,

NOR WILL I EVER FORSAKE YOU,”

Hebrews 13:5