The Greatness of God: Part 1

My Family Knows Nothing About Coffee But God Does

I was so blessed to spend a week with my brother who recently had a severe accident. I was able to help get the house in order and prepare meals while my sister-in-law went back to work. God knew exactly what they needed and allowed me to be able to take a week to be there for them. While I was there, I realized that they know absolutely nothing about coffee. First of all, they have a coffee pot that is the size of a dime. Why don’t they have a Keurig if they are not going to commit to a pot of coffee? Who knows, but my brother doesn’t even know how to use this miniscule machine. I came out one morning to a half a pot of coffee, a microscopic half pot. I asked if he had already had a cup and he said, “No, I just brewed it.” “Did you only make half a pot?”, was my response. “No, I made a full pot.” Uh, what? He informed me that he doesn’t know why it does that but that his wife would fix it when she got home. Well, he had put the basket in incorrectly and the water had filled up in it and wasn’t draining. He didn’t even know how to work the pot. That evening while my sister-in-law was reading through first week of school papers from her students, she stopped to ask me what an Americano was. Uh, what? What is the matter with these people? This all made me stop to realize that we human beings no so very little, but our God knows it all. Our great, amazing God!

Our God is omniscient. This may be a new word to you and what a great one to begin to understand. This word means that He is all knowing. He has the ability to know the past, the present and the future. He knows things before they even happen. He has no one to teach him because who on earth would he learn from if he knows all things, even before they happen. Can you see how this would make our God so great. This ability gives Him access to infinite knowledge which is what makes him powerful and perfect.

1 Samuel 2:3 says, “The Lord is the God of knowledge.” He knows your heart, your thoughts, your pride, your envy, your love. Job 12:13 says, “Wisdom and strength belong to God; counsel and understanding are his.” Perfect wisdom is only of Him and the world knows nothing that he doesn’t already know. I love this because it makes me think about a cure for cancer and know, without doubt, that He has one rolling around in his head and is placing it in the minds of men to discover.

Psalm 139: 1-6 is titled The All-Knowing, Ever-Present God and it says,

Lord, you have searched me and known me.

You know when I sit down and when I stand up;

you understand my thoughts from far away.

You observe my travels and my rest;

you are aware of all my ways.

Before a word is on my tongue,

you know all about it, Lord.

You have encircled me;

you have placed your hand on me.

This wondrous knowledge is beyond me.

It is lofty; I am unable to reach it.

God truly know us, our person, nature and character. He knows everything about us, our desires, our hearts, our worries, our celebrations. And, because He knows all of this, he will always know the outcome. This is the reason our faith in Him should be so strong. If we have this true faith, we know that the outcome of our cancer will be in His control. He knows the outcome of the purchase of the house we need to have for your growing family will work out. He knows the man you are going to marry even before you even want to be married.

This knowledge could be a little scary to some of us. Imagine Him knowing exactly what you are going to say before you say it. For you four letter word people, this should be something you think about. Often times when I am on the way to deal with a difficult situation, I will pray for God to give me the words to speak so that I am speaking His truth and not speaking what anger or frustration might be boiling in me. When you take time to do this, it shows a true faith that you know God and his Holy Spirit will speak through you in times when most people would choose to yell, scream, cuss and make others feel bad. This is also a reason why it is a good idea to not have a conversation when you are truly angry. Taking time to ask God to support your words, He knows them anyway, will allow you to speak the words God already knows he wants you to say, versus the words you want to say, and he knows those too.

My mother was diagnosed with cancer at the age of 43. God knew exactly what he was doing when he allowed this cancer to happen. Through her cancer journey, I was able to watch her and her great strength. Then, at age 43, I was diagnosed with cancer and because God knew that this cancer would be happening, he made it so that I could watch a great cancer warrior live through it and would be able to do so myself. It just so happens, as well, that she lived through it with great faith, which I, in turn was able to do.

This omniscient attribute of God can make it difficult for some people to believe in Him. For example, many people believe that if God truly knows all of this why, then, does he allow bad things to happen? This, my friend, is because of free will. Why on earth does my brother allow the coffee pot to not flow correctly? His free will is to be lazy and let his wife fix it later. God knows the things he wants to put in place in order that you might choose to follow him. He allows the difficult situations because he is watching and waiting for your free will to turn to him and seek all help and guidance from him. If he made everything perfect for us, why would we choose him? We would just go about our days expecting that He will do it all.

I will admit that there was a time I raised my son that way and he, then, expected me to do it all. I still struggle with letting him suffer and have free will to choose the wrong choices. Imagine how difficult it must be for a Father who loves us so much, to watch us choose wrong paths, when He knows exactly the path, he has planned for us. Then we curse Him because it didn’t turn out the way WE wanted it to, but in reality, it was not the plan HE had for us.

Boy how we get in our own way and definitely in God’s way. As Psalm 139 above shows us, God knows us deeply and this is a precious blessing. If we will submit ourselves to God and get out of his way, it would be amazing how our lives could travel. This is not to say we won’t have struggle. We’ve talked about that before. He will allow struggle in order for us to turn to him. But, once we do decide to have faith in Him, we will assuredly see our lives go in a different direction. His direction.

Because God knows everything, we can rest in the fact that no matter what we are facing it is not too hard for him and we can rest in what the outcome will be. He promises that he will never fail us because his plan for us is so great. He promises that if we put our faith in Him and allow him to be in control the outcome of our lives will be just as planned.

Today, if you are facing cancer, looking for that perfect partner, facing a divorce, have addiction in your life, are watching your children struggle, put your faith in God and let him loose his plans on your situation. Putting your faith in Him and allowing him to pour out his grace on you will help you walk through the struggle no matter how difficult. If you are enjoying life, traveling, watching your kids prosper in marriage and career, recovering from a successful surgery, sitting on a beach, take time to praise God for his perfect plan because he has put you in the exact place at the exact time to enjoy what is happening.

My brother may not be able to make a good cup of coffee, but he can profess to putting his faith in Christ and letting His total omniscience be in control. Hopefully he will now take time to ask God to help him make a good pot of coffee. Although, after watching him this week, I don’t know if it is in God’s plan.

My coffee today is black with a dab of cream. As I sit and enjoy it, I am making a list of all the precious gifts that God’s plan has afforded me. Take time to do the same and to spend time asking about, listening to, and watching God’s great plan play out in your life.