“’But I have been watching!’ declares the Lord” (Jeremiah 7:11b).
God is omniscient. He is all-knowing. He is always watching. This truth can be comforting or sobering, depending on where one stands in their relationship with Him.
For the person who is right with God and in close fellowship with Him, the fact that God is watching is comforting. No matter the circumstances you are facing, it is comforting to know that God sees and knows. David understood that when he prayed, “Keep me as the apple of your eye;…” (Psalm 17:8).
The phrase, “apple of your eye,” comes from a Hebrew expression that literally means “little man of the eye.” It refers to the tiny reflection of yourself that you can see in other people’s pupils. To be the apple of someone’s eye means that you are being watched closely by that person. You are the center of their attention. When David prayed “Keep me as the apple of your eye”, he was asking God to not lose sight of him. David was asking that God would regard him as one would a cherished child, the object of great affection.
As a child of God, it is comforting to know that I am the apple of God’s eye. I AM ALWAYS AT THE CENTER OF HIS ATTENTION. Today, He wants to remind you and me, “I have been watching!”
Knowing that God is always watching should also be a motivation to choose obedience over sin. Stores put up cameras for the purpose of watching both the shoppers and employees. These cameras are to serve as a deterrent to crimes being committed. Even in the presence of “the eye in the sky”, people still attempt to get away with shoplifting, etc.
Judah thought they could commit spiritual adultery as well as other sins and get away with it. However, God says, “‘Will you steal and murder, commit adultery and perjury, burn incense to Baal and follow other gods you have not known, and then come and stand before me in this house, which bears my Name, and say, “We are safe”—safe to do all these detestable things? Has this house, which bears my Name, become a den of robbers to you? But I HAVE BEEN WATCHING!” (Jeremiah 7:9-11).
Why is it that we forget God is watching? Why do we forget that God lives in us by His Holy Spirit? David wrote, “Where can I go from your Spirit? Where can I flee from your presence? If I go up to the heavens, you are there; if I make my bed in the depths, you are there” (Psalm 139:7-8). God is not only all-knowing. He is ever-present. Walking the continual awareness of these truths should make a difference in the daily choices we make.
Today, God wants to remind us, “I have been watching!” Receive comfort from the fact that you are at the center of His attention and affection in this very moment. Let this truth also be a motivation to not make bad choices or even good choices, but to make the best choices in your day today!