You Need A Bigger Concept Of God
“As the heavens are higher than the earth, so are My ways higher than your ways and My thoughts than your thoughts.” (Isaiah 55:9)
Your internal picture of God decides how you see everything else. The majority of our troubles are not circumstantial; they are perceptual. We can trace our biggest problems back to an insufficient understanding of who God is. “God says, ‘As the heavens are higher than the earth, so are My ways higher than your ways, and My thoughts than your thoughts.’ ” (Isaiah 55:9)
A best-selling author informs us: “Astronomers have spied galaxies 12.3 billion light-years from earth. To put that distance into perspective, consider the fact that light travelling at 186,000 miles per second only takes eight minutes to travel the 93 million miles between the Sun and planet earth. Sunlight is only eight minutes old. But light from the farthest galaxy takes 12.3 billion light-years to get here. That distance is virtually incomprehensible. And God says that is about the distance between His thoughts and our thoughts. Your best thought about God on your best day falls 12.3 billion light-years short of how great and how good God really is…Maybe it’s time to stop placing four-dimensional limits on God. Maybe it’s time to stop putting God in a box the size of your cerebral cortex. It’s time to stop creating God in your image and let Him create you in His.”
The more we grow, the bigger God should become. And the bigger God becomes, the smaller our troubles will become. The hymnist Oscar C. Eliason wrote: “Got any rivers you think are uncrossable? Got any mountains you can’t tunnel through? God specializes in things thought impossible. He can do just what none other can do.”
Prayer
Heavenly Father, help me focus on Your greatness and not on my troubles! Help me today and every day to trust that YOU HAVE IT! In Jesus’ name, Amen.
ITTT
You are right on target for me. I have been struggling to accept that I cannot have some vision of God. Am trying too hard. Thank you, and God bless you always.
This was a really good devotional. Thank you!
WOW! What a great reminder of God’s greatness…and our small perception of what we can do. I am 94 yrs old and am a strong proponent of Norman Vincent Peale’s “The Power of Positive Thinking”. Now many religious leaders, especially Lutherans seem to put that concept down, saying it focuses on our own power and strength. I strongly disagree with that. Peale supports every “can-do” idea with a scripture verse. Positive thinking is taking what God has given to us and what He will continue to give us, far more than we can imagine…and leads us, teaches us to only trust in Him to see us through the rough spots. When we hit too many brick walls, we give up, burn out. Positive thinking reminds us to rely on God and use that which He has given us.
When we believe that God has called us to do something great, and for Him, it doesn’t mean it will be a breeze or unachievable and when too many tell us, “It can’t be done”. And as all those negative arrows shot at us, we weaken. I believe it was Jim Reeves that put forth the song, “It is no secret what God can do”.
If all of us believing Christians could really grasp the fact that, the unbelievable fact that God Created these Heavens and this Earth and all that is within it and how each plant, flower, creature, mineral, gases, drops of water had been engineered, designed with not just a Life-Time warrantee, but thousands of life-times what amazing things could be done. Yes, through His guidance many amazing things have been accomplished through His guidance…through Christ. But, it seems we have become less and less reliant on His Power and have assumed it was our power or the power of those great “people” that no longer exist. How sad.
How easy, it seems, to let negative thinkers suppress our faith in His mightiness. To prevent the work that is needed to reach out to the children in our community, in the name of “too much work”, too costly, “they are probably not of our faith” or disguised but obvious thoughts, “they’re not of our culture or color”, “too many children on our campus would increase our insurance and liabilities”, “require more maintenance”, … all negative slings and arrows.
When in God’s eyes, these are merely tiny pebbles on the path to His design…..
“Whom shall I send?”
Thank you for the reminder of His Greatness. I pray that I can hold that in my heart and thoughts and bolster my faith and trust. Even at 94, (the other perceived short-coming). “I wonder if He is still counting on me?” How do I know?