Proverbs 15:3

The eyes of the LORD are in every place, beholding the evil and the good.”

Proverbs 15:3

Matthew Henry writes concerning this verse “Secret sins, services, and sorrows, are under God’s eye. This speaks comfort to saints, and terror to sinners.”

It can be seen as a great comfort that the True and Living God watches everything. When we are in trouble He sees us, when are experiencing fear and anxiety He sees us. When our hearts are broken He sees us. The Providence and knowledge of God is in all places at all times.

This is also something that we should recognize when in our secret place as well. The secret place, including our thoughts, our homes, our alone time with ourselves, when we feel we have no need to display our piety before others. Our thoughts are not hidden from the Lord. Psalms 139 reads “O LORD, you have searched me and known me! You know when I sit down and when I rise up; you discern my thoughts from afar. Even before a word is on my tongue, behold, O LORD, you know it altogether”.

Every thought, word and deed is before the LORD and nothing can be hidden. So in our secret place He knows what no one else will ever know. The random thoughts that race through our minds is known to Him. This is particularly one that bothers me most. Temptations are everywhere, and yes, we must do our best to escape things and places that cause us to be tempted. And we must fight through these times with prayer, relying on God to provide the means that we need to overcome these Temptations. But the mind is a powerful things. The thoughts can often come out of nowhere, even when all seems good and you are focused on your life in Christ.

I deal with this a lot and I’m sure others do also. I can be in a perceived good position in my Christian walk, studying scripture, meditating on the things of God, and “watching my P’s and Q’s” as they say, but the randomness that passes through my mind is sometimes uncontrollable. These times and these thoughts do not go unseen by God, but the grief these thoughts cause my soul doesn’t go unseen by God either.

I know that my eternal security doesn’t rely on how well I control my mind, how pious I may appear before others, or how spotless my life is when I’m in my secret place alone. It relies on Christ and His life lived, given up, and raised again. But this does not mean I should simply accept that I’m imperfect and prone to wonder in though and deed. No, this should drive me closer to God with a desire that these instances of sin would fall away from my life.

Knowing that the eyes of the Lord are in every place means we have NO secret place in reality. We may feel we can act some way or slack off and do things differently when we are home in our comfort zone, but we are not alone. Our laziness towards God, our slip ups, our thoughts are never hidden in a dark place that only we know about. “The eyes of the Lord are in every place, beholding the evil and the good”.

It’s easy to tell someone to “do better” when they find their secret life is really laid before the LORD and is known by Him. We can give them scripture but we must also be ready to help them apply it. Giving them practical ways to have their eyes on God and thoughts on God. After all, we are expected to help lead others, no better way than to point them to God through His word and them be ready to help with ways to apply it.

So what are some practical ways that we we can use and also point others towards to help us constantly realize that the eyes of the Lord are everywhere, beholding good and evil? Here are some I think would be helpful, I’m sure there are many more. Think on these and come up with some of your own.

• Flood your mind with scripture. Memorize verses that not only could help you deal with good or evil in Your life, but would also be helpful for others.
• Think about the blessings God has given you. Not just the obvious ones like family, job, shelter…think past the common ones and look to other blessings that we often take for granted like the process of our human heart beat, the ability to breathe freely, the circulation of each tiny blood cell and the importance of each on, the sound of birds in the morning, the sound of no birds at night when sleeping lol. We have billions and billions of things each day that are blessings to be thankful for. Looking for them in obvious and obscure places will point to the fact that God’s eyes are on His entire creation.
• Have a heart ready for prayer. Say a small prayer for each person you see walking while you are out driving during the day. Pray that the Lord would keep them safe and let them also realize the blessings they have, and understand that they aren’t alone in times of trouble and aren’t out of His sight in times of sin.
• Think on your past, times when life was extremely hard and the think on the moment it all turned around, understanding that God’s eyes were on you when you were low and He raised you up.

I feel these things help me to be aware that God is in all places in my life at all times. I do try to keep these things as habits, I fail and fall short sometimes, but they serve me greatly as a way to remember that everything is laid before the LORD, nothing surprises His, He sees all and knows all.