I’ve been pondering what it means for God to know all our sins, weaknesses and flaws. In some ways God knowing everything is quite intimidating. It means that God knows the sins we have long since forgotten about or didn’t realise we committed. He knows our character flaws that haven’t yet had a chance to make themselves obvious. He knows the fine details of exactly how we are weak. Even our strongest moments of conviction about our sins don’t give us a full picture of everything he knows.
However, I’ve been coming to realise that God knowing all of this about us is also a deeply reassuring thing. It means that God is never surprised, shocked, confused or dumbfounded by any way we fail because he already knew all about it. It does not throw him into a crisis and send him scrambling to re-write his plans. He is never left thinking “I wish I knew how prone to sin she was when I saved her because I wouldn’t have gotten involved if I knew how much effort it would take to sanctify her.”. Likewise he never ends up saying, “Wow, I never would have let him into a ministry leadership position if I knew he was that flawed. I can’t possibly make things work with someone like that in charge of the ministry.” He knew exactly what he was getting himself into when we saved us or called us to something and is more than capable of working with and through whatever flaws we have. We can be confident that at no point is God going to find something new about us that is just too difficult and give up. He will finish what he has started for his glory and our good. I can join with Paul in saying, “And I am sure of this, that he who began a good work in you will bring it to completion at the day of Jesus Christ.” (Philippians 1:6 ESV)
