A Bad Penny and A Know It All

What is the significance of a “bad penny”?  If is thought that the phrase  “like a bad penny” originated around the time of the introduction of mechanical dispensing machines, a time when a penny actually bought something.  A “bad penny” was one that would not work in the dispensing machine.  Today, it would be the quarter.  The “bad penny” would keep showing up; so it came to be used in reference to someone who was not wanted, who kept showing up at the most inopportune times.

What has this got to do with a “Know it all” and today’s blog. Normally we view these two characteristics in a negative light; but I want you to reconsider them in a positive light as they describe your heavenly Father. 

Consider Psalm 139

¹      O Lord, You have searched me and known me.

²      You know my sitting down and my rising up;

      You understand my thought afar off.

³      You comprehend my path and my lying down,

      And are acquainted with all my ways.

⁴      For there is not a word on my tongue,

      But behold, O Lord, You know it altogether.

⁵      You have hedged me behind and before,

      And laid Your hand upon me.

⁶      Such knowledge is too wonderful for me;

Your Father knows everything.  He knows everything about you, about me.  He knows everything about everything.  At first his may appear daunting and discouraging; but it is comforting.  There is nothing that you can share with Him, that He already does not know.  He knows your thoughts before you think them.  He knows you concerns before you verbalize them or for that matter, think them.

Combine this with the fact that He also IS everywhere!

⁷      Where can I go from Your Spirit?

      Or where can I flee from Your presence?

⁸      If I ascend into heaven, You are there;

      If I make my bed in hell, behold, You are there.

⁹      If I take the wings of the morning,

      And dwell in the uttermost parts of the sea,

¹⁰      Even there Your hand shall lead me,

      And Your right hand shall hold me.

¹¹      If I say, “Surely the darkness shall ◙ fall on me,”

      Even the night shall be light about me;

¹²      Indeed, the darkness shall not hide from You,

      But the night shines as the day;

      The darkness and the light are both alike to You.

¹³      For You formed my inward parts;

      You covered me in my mother’s womb.

      When I awake, I am still with You.

After all this, the Psalmist invites God to:

²³      Search me, O God, and know my heart;

      Try me, and know my anxieties;

Kind of dumb, considering he just said that God knew everything!  I guess the psalmist wasn’t all that much different than us when we pretend to tell God how He ought to handle our lives.

What has all this to do with “spiritual warfare”?

Truth # 3

God is always with you, beside you, and in you.  You say, “but I don’t always feel like it”.  Since when does “feeling” have anything to do with reality?  Today we have been sold this bill of goods that’s says, “Perception is everything”.  NOT!  Perception is NOT everything, unless you think YOU are everything; because perception is about you and me.  It is not about God.  GOD is reality!

Your feelings don’t change reality!  God is still there even if you don’t feel Him!

When you are fighting the spiritual fight, you are not alone, regardless of how you feel.  Your Father is right there and He not only is there, He knows what is going on.  He wants you to win , “that ye may be able to withstand in the evil day, and having done all, to stand. Stand therefore.”