People form their ideas about God from various sources: books, other people, their own fathers, movies, television, personal experiences, the internet, and yes, even the Bible. What about you? How big is your God?
How Big Is Your God?
I admit that’s a truth I forget often–how huge God really is. Yet I can remember the overwhelming feeling of my own smallness when cruising past an Alaskan glacier, or gazing at a majestic Colorado mountain range. The same feeling streams through my spirit when I fly fish or soak my feet in the Shenandoah River. But that happens repeatedly each time I walk through my backyard garden, watch a hummingbird suspended in air, or observe a small nuthatch build its nest in my decorative bird house on the patio.
I’ve witnessed God’s amazing power at hearing the heartbeat of a child inside my womb–only a few weeks old–and then the miracle of birth as my children took their first breath. I’ve heard the roar of God’s magnificence in the raging waves when I sunk my toes into the grains of sand along the Pacific seashore. And on a clear summer’s night, I still shake my head at the myriad of stars, planets, and galaxies that bear the signature of a God whose size we cannot even fathom.
Through the years, God has reminded me often in the hard times of life that His power and vastness there are just as huge as His footprint in nature. As big as He is, He still cares about you and me as individuals. His care is personal, and His love is beyond understanding.
God reminded me again of His bigness recently through the message of one of our church’s pastors. I hope you’ll take the time to listen to Greg Bradford’s message in the archives: “Count on it” series called, “The Promise Keeper.”
The passage Greg used illustrates the futility and limits of our own understanding of God’s magnitude:
Who has measured the waters in the hollow of his hand, or with the breadth of his hand marked off the heavens? Who has held the dust of the earth in a basket, or weighed the mountains on the scales and the hills in a balance? Who can fathom the Spirit of the Lord, or instruct the Lord as his counselor? Whom did the Lord consult to enlighten him, and who taught him the right way? Who was it that taught him knowledge, or showed him the path of understanding? (Isaiah 40:12-14 NIV).
I also stumbled across this song by the Clark family, called “Big Enough.” Enjoy!
If that’s not enough to challenge you, here are a few more thoughts of my own from Job’s life to help you consider, “How big is your God?”
Job thought he knew what God was like. Job was a good man, a man God described as one “of complete integrity” (Job 1:8, NLT). Even in immense suffering, Job didn’t curse God. He thought he understood God until his world caved in. But in the end, after his personal appointment with the Almighty Himself, Job realized that his god had been too small.
How Big Is Your God?
Is He big enough to lay the earth’s foundation? (Job 38:4, NIV).
Is He strong enough to shut up the sea behind doors? (Job 38:8, NIV).
Is He creative enough to design a snowflake or compose a heavenly symphony? (Job 38:6-7; 22, NIV).
Is He wise enough to know where light comes from and where darkness goes? (Job 38:19-20, NLT).
Is He powerful enough to tip over the water jars of heaven to soften the clods of earth? (Job 38:37-38, NIV).
Is He compassionate enough to feed the raven when its young cry out to God? (Job 38:41, NIV).
Is He loving enough to send His own Son to die, so you won’t have to? (John 3:16)
Is He tender enough to bless a child or hold a babe in His arms? (Mark 10:16, NIV).
What about You?
How big is your God…when the mortgage is due? When your friends have all left? When the doctor’s report is not good? When your child is being bullied? When your world collapses? When your faith has been attacked?
The same God who blessed Job in the end is the One who ordered his beginning. He has never changed. He never will. He is able, and He is bigger than you think.
Fill in this blank: God is____________ to ______________________.
Strangely enough, God seems to flood my thoughts with ideas and thoughts during a praise and worship service. Not only did He inspire the truth I wrote in the above poster meme about being in God’s creation, but God also confirmed to me once again what I feel is one of the main purposes of my life. May I share it with you?
“God gave me an exclamation point to the purpose of my life–the one He carved out for me years ago: ‘Make His name (and His Bigness and Faithfulness) known wherever, whenever, and however I can.'” (And here’s a short version of something God impressed on me long ago: “Add My Beauty, Write My Words.”) So that’s what I’ll keep trying to do as long as God gives me breath.
My Personal Prayer for You
Lord, I have often reduced you to fit the size of my world, not Yours. How powerful, wise, and personal You are! Stretch us, Lord, and enlarge our view of who You really are. In the midst of our greatest challenges and even in the smallest details of our lives, help us see the magnificence of Your character. We are so small. Yet You love us–each one–as if we were Your only child. That’s huge! Thank You, Lord!
Day-votedly His,
Rebecca
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