The day my husband was diagnosed with cancer, I didn’t even go to the doctor with him. The thought that he might have cancer hadn’t even crossed our minds. We had no clue the bump on his forehead was one of the rarest and most aggressive forms of skin cancer.
We didn’t know.
After he came home and explained what the doctor had told him, we sat in our bedroom, hugging and crying, when his phone went “Ding!”
A friend and coworker who had no idea he had even had a doctor’s appointment that day or that he had even had a biopsy done texted:
“No matter what unexpected thing you are facing today, just remember that God goes before you.”
You see, we didn’t know, but God did.
My husband’s friend simply reminded us of that fact.
In the year and a half since that day, we have lived in the comfort of knowing that God knows so when I was asked to review LIsa Whittle’s book God Knows, I could hardly turn down the opportunity. If ever a book reached out and said, “Read me!” it was this one.
I was captured by the title and then the tagline: “when your worries and whys need more than temporary relief.”
Mine do! How about yours?
Inspired by the seldom-studied book of Nahum, God Knows details the behind-the-scenes picture we are missing, what His great knowing entails, and how his omniscience provides daily perspective to bring the healing and peace we are all desperate to find.
Some of the chapters in the book that really spoke to me were: “Chapter 1 – God Knows You Need Relief,” “Chapter 2 – God Knows Your Dreams,” “Chapter 5 – God Knows Your Limits,” and “Chapter 7 – God Knows Your Future.”
For a woman who can’t see past the next set of CT scans, Whittle’s reminders of the ways God’s knowing affects our going and growing were encouraging and challenging.
Some of the thoughts from the book that really resonated with me include:
- “Without His breath we wouldn’t have existed. And in it, we were intended to begin a lifetime relationship of reliance.” (page XII)
- “But He knows. These are words of assurance even in questioning. Confidence during crisis.” (page 4)
- “We may want it done quicker, or in our way, but if we want it done best we will let Him handle it.” (page 57)
- “There can be moments of happiness and pleasure even with the companion of hardship. This confuses people when they refuse to honor the both-and of life. Life is hard and it is also good….We don’t have to fake optimism when we believe in God’s omniscience.” (page 85)
- “The great irony is that while our lives themselves are limited, there is no limit to what God can do with us in our lives.” (page 104)
- “This is where God’s omniscience meets our limitation – He knows things about our life we do not, and He limits us to protect us.” (page 123)
- “What truly limits us is the obstacle of the optical. Your life will change when you begin to see limitations as opportunities for God to show forth His greatness.” (page 127)
- “The issue we are really having is not lacking information, even though we are on the constant knowledge hunt; it is lacking certainty…” (page 158)
- “The difference between us and God is that He actually knows. He doesn’t rely on unreliable tools of measurement. He doesn’t have feelings that interfere with facts. God handles our futures best because his knowledge is based in certainty. And as we worship Him, we move from certainty in ourselves to certainty in Him.” (page 141)
In our lives, we have seen so many of these things prove true. We have seen God prove himself true. Time and again. Our circumstances never surprised him. Our needs never overwhelmed him. Our fear never changed his faithfulness.
In God Knows, you will:
- Experience freedom by learning the difference between privacy and secrecy,
- Develop renewed belief in your abandoned dreams and goals, still known by God,
- Realign your idea of God’s omniscience being far away to how it daily affects you,
- Release your fears for the future as you develop a different outlook on tomorrow through God’s lens, and
- Learn how to deal with injustice in light of God’s knowledge of it.
That’s what this book is about, and I’d really like to offer you a copy of it! Just comment below to be entered into a giveaway! You can also purchase a copy here!