Pastor’s Corner: “Big God”
Jeremiah 32:17 (AMP) – 17 ‘Ah Lord God! Behold, You have made the heavens and the earth by Your great power and by Your outstretched arm! There is nothing too difficult or too wonderful for You—
One of the things we must avoid in life is making God smaller than He is. When we shrink God down to a “comfortable size” we are much less likely to depend on Him. Our problems get bigger as our view of God gets smaller. The reality is, God is much bigger than any of us think He is! The more we grow in our faith and Biblical understanding of the greatness of God, the more we will want to worship Him.
I’m afraid that many of us live as if we really don’t need God until the going gets really tough – this is a big mistake. The reality is we need God more than our very next breath; in fact, we need Him FOR our very next breath! Our life comes from Him and He is the one who brings us new life through faith in Jesus. We need to learn dependence on God in order to live our day-to-day lives to the fullest. And we also need to learn to depend on Him because He has big, “God-sized” things for us to do – things we know we could never do without Him.
When we receive Christ, God does begin to live inside of us. “Don’t you know that you yourselves are God’s temple and that God’s Spirit lives in you? (1 Corinthians 3:16, NIV). “To them God has chosen to make known among the Gentiles the glorious riches of this mystery, which is Christ in you, the hope of glory” (Colossians 1:27, NIV).
I read a story about a little girl who while on the way home from church, turned to her mother and said, “Mommy, the preacher’s sermon this morning confused me.” The mother said, “Oh! Why is that? The girl replied, “Well, he said that God is bigger than we are. Is that true?” “Yes, that’s true,” the mother replied. “He also said that God lives inside of us. Is that true too?” Again the mother replied, “Yes.” “Well,” said the girl, “if God is bigger than us and He lives inside of us, wouldn’t He show through?”
We have a Big God who lives in us and He will show through when we trust Him! Do you have any idea what “God-sized” job He wants you to do? This is an important question for us to take some time to answer. When was the last time you asked Him this question? How about today – like right now? I am afraid we often choose to do only those things we think we can do without Him. God has so much more for us! He wants to show us the big things He can do in and through us when we live in total dependence on Him! Are you open to stepping out of your comfort zone and taking an adventure of faith with God that will force you to completely depend on Him? This is what you were made for. Let His love for you overwhelm your fear, rather than your fear overwhelm His love. He is Bigger!
In these times of uncertainty, it is not the time to shrink back in fear, but to move forward in faith and trust Him more, not less! Let’s take that step, remembering that He is faithful and He will not leave us or forsake us. So let’s put God between ourselves and any difficulties in our lives. Then let’s trust Him and discover new and wonderful ways just how big He really is!
In His Grace,
Pastor Hamilton