Have No Fear: God's Attentiveness

But the very hairs of your head are all numbered (Matthew 10:30).

I remember when I first read Psalm 147:4, He (God) counts the number of the stars; He gives names to all of them. I was just a boy, about 10 years old. I waited until dark to look up into the night sky to see if I could count the stars. We lived in Arkansas, on the top of a small mountain, far away from the city lights. I remember the night being crystal clear with the stars shining brightly. Of course there were far too many stars to count. In fact, I lost count several times! 

I am told that there are about 100 thousand million stars in our own Milky Way Galaxy. The Milky Way Galaxy is one of 2 trillion galaxies in the known universe. That’s a lot of stars. And yet God knows them all by number and by name. 

The average adult has 100,000 to 150,000 hairs on his/her head, and loses up to 100 of them per day. There are some who look like they have much more hair, and there are certainly those who have far less. But that’s the average. If there are 7.8 billion people on the planet (as of January 2020) that would be  . . . a lot of hair! Yet God knows each strand of hair on each head.

As Jesus was preparing His disciples for ministry, He revealed to them how important they are to God and to God’s Kingdom. He is aware of who they are and what they are doing. The population of Palestine at that time was 500,000 to 600,000 people. How significant could Jesus and the 12 disciples be in a population the size of Fresno? How significant indeed!

The point? Nothing is insignificant with God. His omniscience, omnipotence, and omnipresence makes Him aware of, and in control of every aspect of His creation. He governs it all. Impossible! you say. Nothing is impossible with God! the Bible says (Matthew 19:26; Mark 10:27; Luke 1:37; 18:27).

This does not make God a ‘big brother’ watching us, monitoring us, spying on us to see if and when we make mistakes. It does make Him our Sovereign Lord watching over us to protect us, provide for us, and to prepare the way for us to minister the Gospel of Jesus Christ to those whom He has prepared to receive that Gospel. Jesus wanted His disciples to know nothing would happen to them or through them that God was not fully aware and in control of. Knowing this, they would have confidence to minister without fear of anything or anyone. We have that same provision today because we serve the same Lord today.

“Thank You Lord for the confidence You give us to minister the Gospel of Jesus in Your name, knowing You are fully aware of everything we experience and encounter along the way. May we remain faithful to that task and not shrink back out of fear. To Your honor and glory I ask, Amen.” 

Pastor