God is Watching You Part 1

by John Lowe
(Laurens SC, USA)

God is Watching You

Am I a sea, or a whale, that thou settest a watch over me? Job 7:12 (KJV)

Job was in great pain when he cried out to God and asked this question. He was covered with sores, setting upon a dunghill and scraping himself with pieces of pottery. We admire those who are patient and we say they have the patience of Job, but we don’t wonder about Job’s impatience because we understand it and can relate to it.

Job had times where he complained, and he failed at the very thing that he is noted for. That’s true for many of God’s people; their flaws are found close to where they are the greatest. The weakness which we fear the most is close to our strength. Let me give you some examples:
• Elijah was one of the bravest, but he fled from Jezebel.
• Moses was very meek, but he spoke with great passion.
• God called David a man after His own heart, yet David was a murderer and an adulterer.

Job is a very patient man, yet he cries, “Therefore I will not refrain my mouth; I will speak in the anguish of my spirit; I will complain in the bitterness of my soul.” And then he adds, “Am I a sea, or a whale, that thou settest a watch over me?”

Job was feeling that God was watching and whipping him. He felt that God was concentrating all His strength on making him miserable. Job suffered tremendously, and at last, he cried out, “I am watched and restrained, as if I was a great sea that had to be always held in check or a terrible sea-monster that should be controlled by a hook in its jaws. Lord, why do you harass me like this? I am such a poor insignificant thing, that it doesn’t seem like you to treat me like this. The oceans or Satan may need to be watched so closely, but why do you spend so much time on me?” “Am I a sea, or a whale, that thou settest a watch over me?”

Some people seem to be especially watched by God. We hear about people who are being “shadowed” or followed by the police, but there are certain ones who feel like they are being shadowed by God; they are mysteriously tracked by our Heavenly Father and they know it and feel it. Wherever they Go, His eye is on them and they can’t get away from Him. They cannot get away from God, no matter what they do. There are men and women who have been in this condition for many years and they know what I mean.

All of us are surrounded by God. He is close to all of us, even now. “In Him, we live and move and have our being.” “Whither shall I go from thy spirit? or whither shall I flee from thy presence?” (Psalms 139:7 (KJV) God is in the skies above, in the depths of the earth, in the frozen oceans, in the tropical seas. He is everywhere! It is impossible to escape from God.

God watches over you and me. But there are certain people to whom this is clearer than others. Some are unusually aware of the presence of God. Some of us were never without a sense of God’s presence. As children, we couldn’t go to sleep without saying, “Our Father which art in heaven.” When we were young adults, we trembled when we heard God’s name used to cuss others. As adults, engaged in the pursuits of daily life, we have seen God’s goodness, all along. We can see Him in nature; when the flowers bloom and the wind blows: and it makes us happy to see Him all about us.

“The fool has said in his heart, no God”; but not us. We knew that God was good, even when we had offended Him. We have known Him since our youth. We know that God helps us and loves us. But there are others who consider God’s watch a little differently. They believe they are watched by God because their conscience never stops hauling them over the coals. The conscience does not speak as loudly in all people.

It can be muzzled like a dog or it can disappear like the voice of a man with a cold. But this isn’t true for all people, even after years of sin. Some have a tender conscience, so even though they are living in sin, they are ill at ease. They are happy-go-lucky during the day because they are driving away the cares of the world, but at night, the cares come home to roost, like the chickens.

The soldier is cheerful when he is in the company of his comrades, but when he must stand guard at night, beneath the silent stars, his conscience begins to remind him of the thoughtlessness of the day. And when he finally sleeps, thoughts will turn to past sins and the judgment to come, because the conscience doesn’t sleep even when the body does.
I believe that I am speaking to people who know that there is something within that will not allow you to sin cheaply. God can place a bit in our mouths and a bridle upon our jaws; and every now and then He gives a tug at it, and He pulls us to a stop.
You are not at home in sin. There are those who even do the bidding of the Devil, but they shake when they do it because it doesn’t suit them. God is watching them: they carry a detective in their heart. And then there are some people whom God is watching even more closely because they are under conviction for their sin. I have been one of them. I was like a criminal, who couldn’t deny their guilt, but I dreaded punishment. I wouldn’t go back to that condition for all the kingdoms of the world.

I was only a youth, but I knew that I was a sinner and I feared that God would punish me for my sin. When I woke up in the morning, my first act was to read the Bible and to pray. My bed was a very weary place for me because my conscience would illuminate my fears. The Holy Spirit was working on me; I imagined God’s anger and that He was watching me. I knew that I had offended God. I was saved, but I did not yet understand how to be reconciled to God by the blood of Jesus Christ.

Now, there is another group, and I have been associated with them also. I wanted to live in the world as other men and to enjoy the good times and to partake of some of the vices that I saw others doing. They were getting away with it, and enjoying it; why not me? My first thought was to get away from the church, so I could save my tithe and would have more time available for my new pursuits. Drinking and cigarettes were easy additions to my life. Once again, I was saved, but you couldn’t tell it. I was no different in the life I lived than any other sinner. But I was dogged by fear, and I couldn’t get comfortable with this way of life.

Then the providence of God seemed to come out against me. My business failed and I lost my home and cars; I was broke and didn’t have a job. The stress was terrible, and a few years later I had a heart attack and had to have a triple by-pass. I didn’t have the money or health to continue to go my way. The providence of God was running hard against me-He was not gentle, but He brought me back to faith in Him. He set a watch over me and showed me that I am to depend on Him for all things and must find my joy in Him.