Big God!

Have you ever thought about the size of God? I mean, when you think about Him, how do you personally imagine Him to be? He is often described as great and big. We even sing songs about it – How Great Thou Art, Big, Great and Mighty just to name a few. But again…how do YOU see Him? You may be reading this wondering why I would even ask such a question. Of course God is big and strong and mighty. I say all this because of something interesting I heard this morning on a devotional CD that made me think. It essentially said that in order to really acknowledge God as big, you have to be able to recognize your smallness. That struck a chord with me. It’s commonplace to hear people proclaiming how big God is but then have a hard time trusting Him to handle the “big” problems. So today, I want to challenge you to consciously live like your problems, issues, dreams, etc are no match for the enormity of God.  The question is how big is your God?

Imagine you are trapped in a very deep hole in the middle of nowhere. You can see the sky above but it is a long ways away. I mean…you are DEEP! You begin to cry and scream your frustration because you just cannot see a way out of the hole. Whenever you try to climb up the walls, you fall back down or lots of dirt gives way not allowing you to get a firm hold. What do you do? You begin to pray but you just can’t see a solution. You just have no clue how God could possibly get you out. The hole is just too big and too deep. You give up. Now imagine you stay in said hole for days and the whole time you are praying but not really believing that God could get you out. You’ve remembered recently that you have a pocket bible on you and you begin to read out loud scriptures about the power of God. “…In Your hand is power and might; in Your hand it is to make great and to give strength to all.” (1 Chron. 29:12 NKJV) “The Lord is their strength, and He is the saving refuge of His anointed.” (Psalm 28:8 NKJV) You start to think perhaps you can’t save yourself but God is capable and willing to do it. All of a sudden you hear rumbling and dirt starts to come pouring in. It appears a tractor has come to fill in the hole. All of a sudden it stops. You start screaming and then you see a face looking down into the hole. You are pulled free and saved! You are ecstatic and ask the tractor driver how in the world he found you. He tells you that there were plans to develop the area and someone evaluating the property had flown over and spotted the hole and thought that they needed to fill in any holes before the real work could begin. He had stopped to check one of the tires and heard the screams.

This is a long scenario just to say this. Sometimes in order to see just how big God is, you have to be in a place where there is nowhere else to go but to Him. You have to see that you are not the major player in your solution. Your situation may seem insurmountable and unsolvable but what happens when you acknowledge that there is nothing too big for God. Often times your struggles are a part of the evaluation process. God has to fill in some holes before He can take you further. I am reminded of the story of Elisha and the Syrians in 2 Kings 6. Israel was at war with Syria and every time their king wanted to set up camp, Elisha would warn the king of Israel of their exact plan and place. The king of Syria was furious to the point that he was accusing his own officers of treason.  The king determines that they should capture Elisha and shut him up so that they can defeat Israel. They travel at night and surround the city where Elisha is. When Elisha’s servant gets up and goes outside the next morning, he sees the army and is scared to death. Elisha, however, remembers that though he is small, his God is big. He tells his servant something that we should all hold onto. “So he answered, “Do not fear, for those who are with us are more than those who are with them.”  And Elisha prayed, and said, “Lord, I pray, open his eyes that he may see.” Then the Lord opened the eyes of the young man, and he saw. And behold, the mountain was full of horses and chariots of fire all around Elisha. (2 Kings 6: 17-18 NKJV) In the end, the situation is diffused to the point where the Syrians went away. God sees beyond what your human mind can comprehend. When you can get to the point where you know that God has a legion of angels surrounding you and working on your behalf, you can rejoice in His bigness. How big is your God?

If your debt is bigger than your salary, rejoice in Jehovah Jireh, your provider! If your diagnosis is harder than the doctor’s wisdom, rejoice in Jehovah Rapha, your healer! If your marriage is constantly under attack, rejoice in Jehovah Shalom, your peace. He is El Shaddai, the Almighty God and he can see the pitfalls and the rest stops long before you do.  He has the power and the might to solve any of your issues. So, if you are struggling in any area of your life, now is the time to stand up, look at your God and speak life to yourself. It’s time to remember that you serve and worship a BIG God and there’s nothing that He cannot do.

May the width and depth of God’s power, love, and peace surround you today! AMEN