God Knows Our Thoughts and Still Loves Us

This morning I am reading from Jeremiah 17, which has several significant passages and verses. I am looking specifically at the following this morning:

Jeremiah 17:9-10 NIV
[9] "The heart is deceitful above all things and beyond cure. Who can understand it?" (Jeremiah's thought)
[10] “I the Lord search the heart and examine the mind, to reward each person according to their conduct, according to what their deeds deserve.” (The Lord's Answer)

I added my own notes as I think the conversation occurred when Jeremiah was writing. In addition to the context of the conversation, I find that the Lord often works this way with me as well. I will have a thought or be thinking about a theme, and when I open my Bible, or sit in prayer, the Lord will directly respond to that which I had been thinking. The Lord not only knows our hearts and minds, but He knows our thoughts and is aware of them constantly. He wants us to understand the intimate knowledge He has of us, and His love for us, regardless of our sinful state.

I am reminded of Psalm 139:1-4, 23-24 NIV
[1] "You have searched me, Lord, and you know me. [2] You know when I sit and when I rise; you perceive my thoughts from afar. [3] You discern my going out and my lying down; you are familiar with all my ways. [4] Before a word is on my tongue you, Lord, know it completely."

[23] "Search me, God, and know my heart; test me and know my anxious thoughts. [24] See if there is any offensive way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting."

I love how aware David was of God's knowledge of him, and his ways. He also understood that God, although He could judge, chooses mercy time and time again. God understands that we are all sinners, that we all fail (Rom 3:23), that we don't understand His ways (Is 55:8-9) and He still loves us and calls us into relationship with Him (John 3:16-17).

If we pay attention, we will find that the Lord is constantly desiring to interact with us in our daily life, responding to our thoughts and prayers, leading us and guiding us. He really does know our hearts and minds, our thoughts and feelings, and He really does care. God is not just some judge sitting on a throne, waiting to judge us on a day of reckoning, but rather, as Jesus demonstrated, a Father whose love is beyond our comprehension, and a Father who knows us intimately and still chooses to love us and reach out to us constantly. Finally as Jesus said in John 14:23b: "...My Father will love them, and we will come to them and make our home with them."