Welcome to another day the Lord has made that we should rejoice and be glad in. (Psalms 118:24)

Today, let’s be mindful of God’s awareness.

Today’s scripture, Exodus 3:7‭-‬10 (NLT) shares…
Then the Lord told him, “I have certainly seen the oppression of my people in Egypt. I have heard their cries of distress because of their harsh slave drivers. Yes, I am aware of their suffering. So I have come down to rescue them from the power of the Egyptians and lead them out of Egypt into their own fertile and spacious land. It is a land flowing with milk and honey—the land where the Canaanites, Hittites, Amorites, Perizzites, Hivites, and Jebusites now live. Look! The cry of the people of Israel has reached me, and I have seen how harshly the Egyptians abuse them. Now go, for I am sending you to Pharaoh. You must lead my people Israel out of Egypt.”

Consider…
Oxford Languages defines aware as
having knowledge or perception of a situation or fact. It also says that it’s being concerned and well-informed about a particular situation or development.

In today’s scripture the Lord told Moses, “I am aware of their suffering.”

An interesting observation about the Lord’s awareness statement is that it follows His acknowledgement of seeing and hearing His people. That suggests seeing and hearing is necessary for, but are not necessarily awareness.

Think of times you misread or misunderstood situations based on the limited information you saw or heard. Your reaction was misguided because you were unaware of what was really going on.

For example, someone bumped into you unintentionally and failed to say excuse me. Because you are offended by their rudeness, you fail to pay attention to their aimless walking. Instead of recognizing they’re distracted, you tell them to pay attention to where they’re walking. However, if you were paying attention, you would have realized that they were in medical or emotional distress. Had you been aware you would have recognized this innocent bumping was an opportunity to care, not selfishly share.

More often than not, people respond to how they are affected by another person’s actions, rather than seeking to understand the underlying reason(s) of those actions.

Unfortunately people are quicker to share what’s bothering them, than they are to care about what’s bothering someone else.

I believe this is why the Holy Spirit inspired James 1:19 (NLT), which says…
Understand this, my dear brothers and sisters: You must all be quick to listen, slow to speak, and slow to get angry.

One of the things I love about God is the fact that He doesn’t ask us to do things that He hasn’t done. Psalms 103:8 (NLT) testifies…
The Lord is compassionate and merciful, slow to get angry and filled with unfailing love.

Wow! Imagine if others described us the same way the Psalmist describes God.

Also, notice the Psalmist said the Lord is, not was or will be, compassionate and merciful. That means the Lord’s present and ongoing disposition is compassion and mercy. Again, imagine if we had a disposition of compassion and mercy.

It also jumps out to me that the verse says the Lord is slow to anger AND full of unfailing love!

This reminds me of the disciples waking Jesus up to make Him aware of the deadly storm they found themselves in. Rather than Jesus responding in anger about being awaken from a good sleep, He showed compassion and mercy by calming the storm to calm their fears. Understand, Jesus knew the storm wasn’t going to kill them, because they had a destiny to reach. But He understood the storm was causing them to have a crisis of faith, so He spoke peace and encouraged them to increase their faith.

The Lord does the same with us. He calms our storms to calm our fears and increase our faith. You see although God knows His plans for us, He is also aware of the crisis-of-faith moments in our lives that make us cry out to Him. Rather than rebuke us for our faith failure, He reaches into His reservoir of unfailing love and quiets the storm so we can more clearly hear how much He loves us.

As I look at today’s scripture again, from the lens of God’s compassion and mercy, I see how both attributes reflect an awareness of the plight of others.

God said that He saw and heard and was aware. That means He looked beneath the surface and saw the dire situation of His people.

There’s a message for us today, God still sees and hears His people and is aware of our dire situations.

In fact Hebrews 4:15 (NLT)
testifies…
This High Priest of ours understands our weaknesses, for he faced all of the same testings we do, yet he did not sin.

That means Jesus is fully aware of everything we face and go through.

I especially like the fact that He understands our weaknesses, because as Paul testified…
Each time he said, “My grace is all you need. My power works best in weakness.” So now I am glad to boast about my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ can work through me. – 2 Corinthians 12:9 NLT

Christ’s power works best in our weakness!

Today, rather than stressing over your dire situations, depend on the fact that your compassionate and merciful God is aware of your suffering. And He will respond with His unfailing love.

Find peace and comfort found in the unfailing love and awareness of God!

No matter what you’ve done or go through, know that God is aware and concerned about you.

Today’s song is…
He’s Concerned

Blessings 4HG (1 Corinthians 10:31)