Good morning and a most blessed Thursday to you.

Recently a teenager shared the sentiment to me that it's pretty cool finding out about how God is the best. And indeed God is the best. I loved the simple boiling down of that statement. that We can wonder, meditate, think, and expound day after day, year after year about how God is the best. But when it comes down to it, that's it. God is the best, We know he's the best throughout Scripture. We hear, and we read, and we come to know him as the best. 

He gave his only begotten Son, so that all who believe in him would not perish, but have eternal life. We're saved by grace through faith, and it's not our own doing it's all a gift from the Lord. Even the very confession of the Lord Jesus Christ upon our lips is from God himself, all because God is the best. 

When we try to figure out how we can explain, or how we can share how God is the best, there's just verse after verse, text after text within Scripture that shows us exactly who God is, and the heart that he has for all people. 

There is a Psalm that speaks of the Lord the Lord who is the best. He is the Lord who knows you better than you even know yourself. This Psalm is such a word of beauty, and a word just begins to express how much God loves you, and how well he knows. He knows us to the depths of our sinful nature, and yet he still he still wanted to enter into humanity and redeem us of that sin. This is the God that we say is the best!

Psalm 139 “The Inescapable God”.

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

2You know when I sit down and when I rise up;

you discern my thoughts from far away.

3You search out my path and my lying down,

and are acquainted with all my ways.

4Even before a word is on my tongue,

O Lord, you know it completely.

5You hem me in, behind and before,

and lay your hand upon me.

6Such knowledge is too wonderful for me;

it is so high that I cannot attain it.

7Where can I go from your spirit?

Or where can I flee from your presence?

8If I ascend to heaven, you are there;

if I make my bed in Sheol, you are there.

9If I take the wings of the morning

and settle at the farthest limits of the sea,

10even there your hand shall lead me,

and your right hand shall hold me fast.

11If I say, “Surely the darkness shall cover me,

and the light around me become night,”

12even the darkness is not dark to you;

the night is as bright as the day,

for darkness is as light to you.

13For it was you who formed my inward parts;

you knit me together in my mother's womb.

14I praise you, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made.

Wonderful are your works;

that I know very well.

15My frame was not hidden from you,

when I was being made in secret,

intricately woven in the depths of the earth.

16Your eyes beheld my unformed substance.

In your book were written

all the days that were formed for me,

when none of them as yet existed.

17How weighty to me are your thoughts, O God!

How vast is the sum of them!

18I try to count them—they are more than the sand;

I come to the end —I am still with you.

19O that you would kill the wicked, O God,

and that the bloodthirsty would depart from me—

20those who speak of you maliciously,

and lift themselves up against you for evil!

21Do I not hate those who hate you, O Lord?

And do I not loathe those who rise up against you?

22I hate them with perfect hatred;

I count them my enemies.

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

test me and know my thoughts.

24See if there is any wicked way in me,

and lead me in the way everlasting.

Indeed, the Lord knows us better than we know ourselves. Indeed he does lead us in the way everlasting. He calls us through his Word, through the gospel. And he calls us to let us known that while we were yet sinners he died for us. Jesus hung upon the cross taking the wrath of God upon himself, the punishment for our sin. He was buried and he rose three days later, victorious over sin, death, and the devil. He gives to you his own righteousness. And he will never ever leave you. You are his. He is yours. This the goodness and the mercy of God… because God is the best!

Heavenly Lord, we thank you so much for being exactly the God that you are. We thank you for knowing us better than we know ourselves, and for guiding us. Lord, indeed we do ask that you would search our hearts. If we are found to be in sin, Lord, lead us to repentance. Lead us to repent of the sin, and to confess it to you, that we may receive the promised forgiveness and mercy through your Son, Jesus Christ. Lord, we thank you that while we were still sinners you sent your own Son to die for us, that we may live in his righteousness, that we may live in the forgiveness and the mercy you freely give. Lord, we ask that you would guide us by your Holy Spirit that you would guide us to live for you, to seek after you, and to seek after serving you. Lord, we thank you for this day. We thank you for every beat of our heart. We thank you for every breath in our lungs. We ask that you would guide us

to be good stewards of the time that you give us this side of heaven, that we would honor your name and share your goodness and your love and glory everywhere we go. Lord, we lift this all to you, praising you for the God that you are. Praising you for being the best! In the name of Jesus, Amen. 

Have an amazing rest of your week. I look forward to worshiping with you this Sunday.

God bless!

Pastor Malinak