"God…knoweth all things." (1 John 3:20)

The omniscience of God means that He has perfect knowledge of everything. He has never learned and can never learn.

One of the great passages on the subject is Psalms 139:1-6, where David wrote: "O Lord, thou has searched me and known me. Thou knowest my downsitting and mine uprising; thou understandest my thought afar off. Thou compassest my path and my lying down, and art acquainted with all my ways. For there is not a word in my tongue, but, lo, O Lord, thou knowest it altogether. Thou hast beset me behind and before, and laid thine hand upon me. Such knowledge is too wonderful for me; it is high, I cannot attain unto it."

In Psalms 147:4, we learn that God counts the number of the stars and calls them all by name. The wonder of this increases when Sir James Jeans tells us that "the total number of stars in the universe is probably something like the total number of grains of sand on all the sea shores of the world."

Our Lord reminded His disciples that not a sparrow falls to the ground unnoticed by our Father. And in the same passage He said that the very hairs of our head are all numbered (Matthew 10:29-30).

It is clear then that "all things are naked and opened unto the eyes of him with whom we have to do" (Hebrews 4:13), causing us to join with Paul in saying "O the depth of the riches both of the wisdom and knowledge of God! how unsearchable are his judgments, and his ways past finding out!" (Romans 11:33).

The omniscience of God is filled with practical meaning for every one of us. There is warning. God sees everything we do. We can't keep anything secret from Him.

There is comfort. He knows what we are going through. As Job said, "He knoweth the way that I take" (Job 23:10). He counts our tossings and numbers our tears in His bottle (Psalms 56:8 RSV).

There is encouragement. He knew all about us and yet He saved us anyway. He knows what we feel in worship and prayer but cannot express.

There is wonder. Although God is omniscient, yet He can forget the sins He has forgiven. As David Seamands said, "I don't know how divine omniscience can forget but it does."