“Your God is Too Small”
by brian rushing
After Hurricane Katrina, when I was rebuilding my library through the gifts of people donating books to me, one of the books that was sent to me was titled: “Your God is Too Small.” When I saw the book, I immediately thought: What a great title!
Too often that seems to be the truth for us…
Our God is too small… That is, the God we have in mind is too small.
It was the reason that Moses questioned God’s ability to provide meat to all the Israelites when they were wandering toward the Promised Land. “God, ummm… I know you said you’d provide us with meat, but maybe while you are sitting up there in heaven you forgot to look down here and count us… there are a lot of us to feed. I’m not sure you are able to fulfill your promise.”
To which God replied: Is My arm too short? Do you think that my power is limited? Wait and see whether I can fulfill my promises.
And He did fulfill His promise.
He sent them so much meat, they got sick of eating it.
I am so very much like Moses and the Israelites. Too often, My God is too small. I don’t believe that He has the power to fulfill His promises. That is why I worry. When I worry, what I am actually saying is: “God, I’m not so sure that you are going to be able to come through for me this time.” But the truth is that God is never small. Just my faith and belief in Him are. Instead, God is too big for me to even comprehend.
The word majesty, when applied to God, is always a declaration of his greatness and an invitation to worship. The same is true when the Bible speaks of God as being on high and in heaven; the thought here is not that God is far distant from us in space, but that he is far above us in greatness, and therefore is to be adored.
”Great is the LORD, and most worthy of praise” (Ps 48:1).
“The LORD is the great God, the great King. . . . Come, let us bow down in worship” (Ps 95:3, 6).
The Christian’s instincts of trust and worship are stimulated very powerfully by knowledge of the greatness of God. But this is knowledge which Christians today largely lack: and that is one reason why our faith is so feeble and our worship so flabby. We are modern people, and modern people, though they cherish great thoughts of themselves, have as a rule small thoughts of God. When the person in the church, let alone the person in the street, uses the word God, the thought is rarely of divine majesty.A well—known book is called Your God Is Too Small; it is a timely title. We are poles apart from our evangelical forefathers at this point, even when we confess our faith in their words. When you start reading Luther, or Edwards, or Whitefield, though your doctrine may be theirs, you soon find yourself wondering whether you have any acquaintance at all with the mighty God whom they knew so intimately.
I sometimes feel that way when I read books by godly men.
I sometimes feel that way when I sit in Sunday School class and hear other people speak about their relationship with God.
I sometimes feel that way when I hear other people pray to their Heavenly Daddy.
Do you ever feel that way?
My prayer today is that of the father who came to Jesus with a demon-possessed son and said:
“…if You can do anything, take pity on us and help us!”
To which Jesus said: “‘If You can?’ All things are possible to him who believes.”
And immediately the boy’s father cried out and said, “I do believe; help my unbelief.”
God, I do believe You are big enough to meet my every need and fulfill my every desire; help my unbelief!”
What are you facing today? Do you trust that God is big enough to handle it? Do you need to pray that He will help you get past your unbelief?
(Quotes in today’s post are from Knowing God by J. I. Packer)