By: Dr. Jacquelyn Simmons
Scripture: O Lord, thou hast searched me, and known me.Thou knowest my down sitting and mine uprising; thou understanest my thought afar off. Thou compasset my path and my lying down and art acquitted with all my ways. For there is not a word in my tongue, but lo, O Lord, thou knowest it altogether; Thou hast beset me behind and before, and laid thine hand upon me…
If I ascend up to heaven thou art there: If I make my bed in hell, behold thou art there: the darkness and the light are both alike to thee…I will praise thee, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made…marvelous are thy works…thine eyes did see my substance, yet being unperfect; and in thy book all my members were written, which in continuance were fashioned, when as yet there was none of them. How precious also are thy thoughts unto me, O God! How great is the sum of them. If I should count them they are more in number than the sand: when I awake, I am still with thee. (Selected passages from Psalm 139) For I know the thoughts that I think toward you, saith the Lord, thoughts of peace, and not of evil, to give you an expected end. Them shall ye call upon me and ye shall go and pray unto me and I will hearken unto you (Jeremiah 29:11, 12).
Scripture: O Lord, thou hast searched me, and known me.Thou knowest my down sitting and mine uprising; thou understanest my thought afar off. Thou compasset my path and my lying down and art acquitted with all my ways. For there is not a word in my tongue, but lo, O Lord, thou knowest it altogether; Thou hast beset me behind and before, and laid thine hand upon me…
If I ascend up to heaven thou art there: If I make my bed in hell, behold thou art there: the darkness and the light are both alike to thee…I will praise thee, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made…marvelous are thy works…thine eyes did see my substance, yet being unperfect; and in thy book all my members were written, which in continuance were fashioned, when as yet there was none of them. How precious also are thy thoughts unto me, O God! How great is the sum of them. If I should count them they are more in number than the sand: when I awake, I am still with thee. (Selected passages from Psalm 139)
For I know the thoughts that I think toward you, saith the Lord, thoughts of peace, and not of evil, to give you an expected end. Them shall ye call upon me and ye shall go and pray unto me and I will hearken unto you (Jeremiah 29:11, 12). My friends, in the first portion of the aforementioned text for this message, the Psalmist, David, is trying to express how awesome God is to him.
He said God not only knows everything about him, but he knows everything about his created world which includes all of us. God knew him and us before he placed us in our mother’s wombs.Those are some of the reasons he has chosen to praise him. If this writer chose to praise God during these present moments, no amount of space can ever be allotted for me to attempt to do so. Wow!!!
The very thoughts of trying to do so are making me excited. What are they doing for you? In the second portion of the text for this message, God is announcing through his prophet, Jeremiah, that after seventy years in Babylonian captivity, due to their sins, he would put into execution his awesome plans for their future. The thoughts he had toward them were of peace and not of evil to give them a future and a hope. He said they could pray unto him and he would answer.
Now, my friends don’t become confused about his promise to answer every prayer. He does not mean we will always be given the answers to our prayers according to our wills, but the answers, for the most part will be according to his will for us. Sometimes we pray for the wrong things and the answers we seek, may wrought much pain and agony for ourselves and others.
My friends, in order to encourage you to pursue an education which will prepare you to substantially support yourselves and perhaps a family, God has commissioned me to guide you down the path for he took me in order to become a columnist for this publication,The Monroe Free Press during the next issue. Tune in.
