“The Lord Knows Me!” – FBC Morning Light (8/13/2024)

Well a good Tuesday morning to you. I hope your day, your week got off to a good start yesterday, and that today you've been able to get into God's Word a little bit. If not, I encourage you to read today Jeremiah chapters 11 to 13 to follow along in our Bible reading plan.

Today I want to focus on primarily the first part of a verse in chapter 12, but I want to lead up to it by looking at verses 1 and 2 in this chapter. Now Jeremiah is the Lord's chosen prophet, and you know God has called him to be a voice to his people to challenge and confront them, but Jeremiah looks around and and he's a little bit perplexed.

Listen to what he says. He says, Righteous are you, O Lord, when I plead with you. All right, he's not blaming God with anything. He knows God is righteous and just. He says, Yet, yet, I know you're righteous, yet let me talk with you about your judgments.

He says, clearly Jeremiah is perplexed. He knows God's righteous, but he sees some things that are just, I know I don't get this, I'm having a hard time processing this, and what is it? He says, he asked the question, Why does the way of the wicked prosper?

You ever wonder that? Does that thought ever crossed your mind? Why are people who are wicked so prosperous? Or I guess we could put it this way, why is it that there are so many people who are prosperous who are at the same time quite wicked?

I mean because certainly there's an awful lot of wicked wicked people who aren't wealthy and prosperous, but it's okay. So why does the way of the wicked prosper? Why are those happy who deal so treacherously?

It seems like life is a party, and yet they are, they're horrible people. He says, You have planted them, yes, they have taken root, they grow, yes, they bear fruit. You are near in their mouth, but far from their mind.

Now in the last part of verse 2, he's addressing the phenomenon of professing Christians, or professing followers of God, who they talk the talk, but they don't walk the walk. The Lord is near in their mouth, but they don't think like him, and they don't act like him.

So he's struggling with this, he's looking at these other people, and he's bothered by how he sees them live, and what they seem to be getting away with. But then he says this in verse 3, and this is what I wanted to kind of zero in on, he says, But you, O Lord, know me.

You have seen me, and you have tested my heart toward you. So I get what Jeremiah is doing here, is he's realizing that the Lord is going to test his heart as well. The Lord knows him thoroughly as well.

In other words, here's the thing, it's so easy, isn't it, to look at other people and draw conclusions about their lives, and about the state of their heart, and their mind, their way of thinking, their relationship with God, and so forth, and be very critical and judgmental without pondering our own, without stopping to think about, What does God know about my heart?

What does he see that's going on inside of my heart? As he tests me, if he should test me, what will come out? What will be proved in that testing? So yes, the Lord knows the heart of the wicked. He knows what's going on in their lives, and in their heart.

He knows all of that, and in his righteousness, he's going to deal with that. But let's also keep in mind, every one of us, let's keep in mind, the Lord knows me. He knows me thoroughly. He knows all about me.

He sees me. He sees my heart. He knows my thoughts from afar off. He will put those things to the test, and what's really there will come out some way or another through the crucible of that testing. So let's be very careful about simply being critical of those who are, yet, wicked and treacherous in their lives, without also examining our own heart and mind, and going before the Lord and acknowledging that he knows me too.

He knows what's in my heart as well. Because he does. He does, quite thoroughly. Heavenly Father, I pray, in our evaluation of the wickedness all around us, and the grief that it causes us in our hearts, may we not forget to look within our own hearts, and seek to know what you know, and to deal with that which will otherwise come out in some form of testing.

We pray in Jesus' name, Amen. All right, well listen, I hope you have a good rest of your Tuesday, and that the Lord will bless you richly in it. Have a good day.