The Real You and the Plans of God

There is a distinct and strong comfort in the ability to be oneself. Transparency’s enemy is the mask so many people wear in order to appear to be who they think they ought to be in any given situation. Freedom and peace are stolen by these masks. We crave to jump headlong into life, unhindered by the pressures of appearances. Why this longing? It is how God designed us.

Transparency was assaulted in the Garden of Eden. Human rebellion against God caused people to run – from their Creator and from each other. Sin brings shame and separation. Jesus shed His own blood to bridge the gap between us and God –and between us and everyone else.

The problem so many people face is our reluctance to run to God. Too proud to admit we are a mess, we try to hide the “real us” while the facade continues. Have you ever – like me – convinced yourself you were doing something for God when, in fact, it was mostly for you? Have you ever engaged in church activity or pious practices when your heart was full of self-righteousness or pride? Have you ever acted out the life of a Christian when your heart was so much more about you than about Jesus? Have you ever convinced yourself that you were doing something right even though you knew it was wrong – simply because you wanted your preferred results?

The prophet Isaiah is very clear when he proclaims, “Then the Lord said, ‘Because this people draw near with their words and honor Me with their lip service, but they remove their hearts far from Me’ . . . Woe to those who deeply hide their plans from the LORD, and whose deeds are done in a dark place, and they say, ‘Who sees us?’ or ‘Who knows us?’” (Isaiah 29:13,15, NASB). Notice the phrase about people who are surely doomed; they “deeply hide their plans from the LORD.” How foolish we can be! We actually convince ourselves that if we hide our plans deeply enough, God will not know our inner musings. We ridiculously come to believe that we can act and say things that do not align with the thoughts and truth of our inner being and get away with it in the sight of the Almighty. We cannot!

For as deeply as we try to hide our core, the God of the universe digs deeper still! I cannot hide my soul from the very One who breathed the breath of life into the dust that is my body. He knows the atoms of my exterior and He knows the invisible intentions of my interior. Therefore, I want to run to Him with honesty for the work that only He can do in me.

I sing with the Psalmist, “For You, O LORD, have made me glad by what You have done, I will sing for joy at the works of Your hands. How great are Your works, O LORD! Your thoughts are very deep” (Psalm 92:4-5, NASB). Deeper than the vainly hidden plans of the unrighteous are the thoughts of our righteous God. The blessed cure for the unrighteous is to run to the God who is deeper than elaborate, useless plans to cover sin. God’s deep thoughts are thoughts of cleansing and rebuilding. Since eternity past, He planned the sacrifice of His own Son for the redemption of those who – without vain attempts to cover their hearts – will run into His arms.

Psalm 92:5 tells us that God’s thoughts are very deep. The Hebrew root for the word “thoughts” is amazing. It implies that God is thinking, planning, calculating, inventing, and imagining. In other words, God is working to build our lives into what He desires. We are a great workmanship – a wonderful edifice! My God has made the Heavens and the Earth, and now He wants to make us into people who reflect His heart, His love, His wonder, and His creativity. God’s planning and calculating and inventing and imagining is so deep! We cannot even begin to ponder how great a design we could be if we would truly yield our hearts to Him without reservation and bring praise to Him for the work of His hands and His thoughts!

The same Hebrew root for the deep thoughts of God in Psalm 92 is used in other passages that give us the flavor of what a wonderful thing God longs to do with us. When God instructs Moses how to build the tabernacle, He says, “Make the tabernacle with ten curtains of finely twisted linen and blue, purple and scarlet yarn, with cherubim worked into them by a skilled craftsman” (Exodus 26:1, NIV). This curtain of colorful, elaborate beauty is the result of the plan and imagination of God. What a gorgeous curtain came to be from the thoughts of God.

In II Chronicles 26:15 (NIV), the same root word is used to describe the inventions of King Uzziah, “In Jerusalem he made machines designed by skillful men for use on the towers and on the corner defenses to shoot arrows and hurl large stones.” The plan and invention here is that of Uzziah and skillful men, who reflect the infinite wisdom of their Creator. Interestingly, God can build into our lives the weapons we need to thwart the enemy of our souls. As God gave these men of old the mathematical and scientific skill to build physical weapons, so God gives to us spiritual skill to fight with spiritual weapons the battles in which we stand.

The same Hebrew root is obviously meant to imply precision, as we see it used in Leviticus 27:18 (NASB), “If he consecrates his field after the jubilee, however, then the priest shall calculate the price for him proportionate to the years that are left until the year of jubilee; and it shall be deducted from your valuation.” The exact mathematical evaluations of this verse solidify our assuredness that God is building us to precise specifications. He knows exactly what we ought to be like in the end, and He has calculated accurately the plans necessary to get us there. A trial here, a success there, an answered prayer here, a time of persevering there, a season of difficulty here, a season of rejoicing there – all of these are definitely working together to make me who I ought to be.

Will you now say with me, “How great are Your works, O LORD! Your thoughts are very deep”? Will you now run to Him, instead of hiding?