Guest writer

I get an email from Purpose Driven Life every morning. Today's was written by Rick Warren and gave me peace in a profound way. It is not new thinking to me, but I guess I need to be reminded sometimes.
First, I am about to finish my Master's in Education. I hope to be able to change jobs and work as a Reading Specialist. Because American Literature is full of sadness and death, I am ready for a change. God already knows what I will be doing next year; I'm going to relax and rely on Him for guidance.
Next, I believe that God gave me a gift when Jason came to stay with us almost two years ago. He stayed with us until he went to Nebraska and gave us an opportunity to spend quality time with Jason the man not Jason the boy or the teen. I will be forever grateful for that time. Jason attended church with me during that time, so I have peace about his death and his eternal destination.
God knew when Jason's life would end; we didn't. If I could just remember that when I am going through something stressful, unsettling, heart-breaking, I may be able to handle life with grace.

What Does God Know about You? (Part 2)
by Rick Warren

Nothing in all creation is hidden from God's sight. Everything is uncovered and laid bare before the eyes of him to whom we must give account. Hebrews 4:13 (NIV)
God knows everything about your faults and failures, and your feelings and frustrations, and he also knows what your tomorrow holds.
God knows your future. We're all interested in the future. It's interesting to me the things people will use to try to figure out what's going to happen next: astrology, horoscopes, reading tea leaves, consulting with people, bio-rhythms.
But they're going to the wrong source because the only one who knows what?s going to happen next is God.
The Bible says, even before you were born, God knew all of your future (Psalm 139:16, Jeremiah 29:11). This means God sees your tomorrow, today. He already sees the things you'll face.
The fact is, God is not limited by time. He's able to be in the past, the present, and the future all at the same time. Think of it like this: if you were in the Goodyear Blimp looking down on the Rose Parade, you could see the beginning of the parade and the end of the parade all at the same time.
God, from his perspective, can see past, present, and future all at once. That should give us great confidence in God. It's comforting to me that he knows everything that is going to happen in my life. He not only knows about the future, he's there in the future. He not only walks with us day-by-day, he can also walk in our future.
God is already prepared for everything you're going to face - tomorrow, next week, or next month. What the future holds may surprise us, but it doesn?t surprise God. Nothing ever catches him by surprise, or makes him say, "Oh, really?!"
Next month or next year you may be faced with a crisis, and you may ask, "What's happening? Where is God?" God's been there all along, preparing. He's already in your future and he's prepared for everything.
If I know that God knows all my tomorrows, today, then I should ask him for advice. He knows what's going to happen: "Call to me and I will answer you. I'll tell you marvelous and wondrous things that you could never figure out on your own" (Jeremiah 33:3 MSG).
The things you don't know, God can tell you about. He's not going to lay out your whole life all at once, telling you everything that will happen in your life. If he did, you'd likely get very discouraged or prideful or both. Instead, he gives it to you a little bit at a time.
It's like this, when you're driving up a mountain on a curving road and you?re caught behind a slow car, you may think, "If I could just see around the curve, I'd go ahead and pass this guy.' If there were a helicopter above, the pilot could let you know if there was another car around the curve. From his perspective, he could help you out.
The same is true with God: from his perspective, he knows everything that's going to happen, so you can ask him for advice.
Here's what I'd suggest, when you get up in the morning, go over your schedule with the Lord. Pray, "Father, you've already seen this day that I'm about to experience. You know ahead of time every interruption I'm going to face, every cranky person in the office, every flat tire, every traffic jam, every missed plane, when I'm going to spill the coffee on my suit. You've already seen it all. Would you, right now, give me the strength to cope through this day, the strength that I need for today."