Week Ten
Have you ever wondered how God can be so many places, know so much, how he could be able to work miracles? Our brains just cannot begin to fathom his vastness and yet we keep trying to understand him. We want to know him, we seek him, we want to know him in terms that we can understand. It is impossible, but yet we are to seek him. When we realize that we could never know all there is to know about him, we can be content to see glimpses of him. We can better understand him by knowing his character. We can see his heart by knowing Christ.
Jesus, God incarnate, Emmanuel, God with us. The more we know Jesus, the more we know the one who sent him. The Bible tells us that God is our creator, the sovereign ruler of the universe that he created, that he is our judge, our provider, he is wise, he is our protector, our savior and that God is spirit.
I guess if we see God working within our lives, that is a good place to start. When we woke up today it was obvious that this would be a new day. The earth was still revolving around the sun and the planets were still in their orbits. The God who created the universe was still in control of the universe, he was still keeping the planets and stars on their courses and we could get up and begin our day. There is a certain amount of trust that we have in God and don’t even realize it, most of the time.
God has put each one of us where we are on this earth. We had no choice of who our parents would be, what continent we would live on, what color our skin would be, if we would be deformed or our brains would be functional. God did the choosing.
Psalm 139:13-16 says, “You made my whole being; you formed me in my mother’s body. I praise you because you made me in an amazing and wonderful way. What you have done is wonderful. I know this very well. You saw my bones being formed as I took shape in my mother’s body. When I was put together there, you saw my body as it was formed. All the days planned for me were written in your book before I was one day old.” We need to look at ourselves as God looks at us.
God provides for our needs each day, his word doesn’t tell us that he provides for everything we want, but the things that we need. When we see little children starving in other countries, when we see our neighbor without a coat, when we see a co-worker who doesn’t have lunch money, when we know someone in the hospital, or in jail God expects us to meet their needs. He uses the followers of Christ to be his hands and feet, his voice and he uses us to provide for the needs of people in need.
God is all knowing. Everything on heaven and earth was created by him. He knows every element, he knows how everything is made because he provided the necessities and the knowledge to make all of it. Computers, cars, appliances, buildings, all things - he has the answers for these things that are broken, misplaced, in disrepair and malfunctioning. If you have a problem with something mechanical, ask God for the wisdom to fix it. If your computer keeps crashing, ask God to show you what the problem is. He really does know the answers and he would love to show you what to do to fix the problems that arise in your life. There is nothing that he can’t do! Sometimes he may tell you to seek professional help, but he will give you an answer to your question.
God wants to take care of us and protect us from the evil one. Jesus specifically asked the Father to protect us. “I will remain in the world no longer, but they are still in the world, and I am coming to you. Holy Father, protect them by the power of your name - the name you gave me - so that they may be one as we are one. While I was with them, I protected them and kept them safe by that name you gave me. None has been lost except the one doomed to destruction so that Scripture would be fulfilled.” John 17:11-12.
When we become Christians, we are under the protection of God the Father because Jesus has asked the Father to protect us. Why do we live as if the enemy had control over our lives? He cannot touch us. Remember Job? God would not let Satan take his life. Satan had to ask permission from God to afflict Job. We need to remember that God is sheltering us, his hand is covering us and we are his.
God is our savior, He died for us because he chose to do so. 1 John 4:14 says, “and we have seen and testify that the Father has sent his Son to be the Savior of the world.” John 3:16-17 clearly states, “For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him.” What a marvelous God to choose to save everyone in the world. In return all he asks for is our belief in him.
God didn’t just send a representative from heaven, he came to earth himself in the form of Jesus. He left behind a glorious home, he willingly elected to take on humanity and become like one of us. The difference was in his sinless blood. Jesus’ mother did not conceive him in the conventional way, but she was inseminated by God himself. The Holy Spirit of God made Mary pregnant. In every way Jesus was human, except for his perfect blood. This blood was the necessary sacrifice to take away the sins of the world.
God is a spirit. Jesus told the woman at the well that God is spirit, and his worshippers must worship him in spirit and in truth. How can we do this? If we truly believe that Jesus is the Son of God, if we really want the God of the universe to dwell within us, we can invite God’s spirit to enter our hearts and be the voice that we listen to. Romans 8:9 says, “True believers are not controlled by the sinful nature but by the Spirit, if the Spirit of God lives in you.” It is a choice we make to invite God to speak to us. God uses his spirit to communicate with believers.
1 Corinthians 2:9-12 tells us much about the spirit of God. “However, as it is written: No eye has seen, no ear has heard, no mind has conceived what God has prepared for those who love him, but God has revealed it to us by his Spirit. The Spirit searches all things, even the deep things of God. For who among men knows the thoughts of a man except the man’s spirit within him? In the same way no one knows the thoughts of God except the Spirit of God. We have not received the spirit of the world, but the Spirit who is from God, that we may understand what God has freely given us.”
What better way to know God better than to communicate with him through his Spirit. If you have never invited the Holy Spirit of God to speak to you, please do it today.
It is impossible to understand everything about God. He is indeed multi-dimensional and beyond that, he is all encompassing. He knows that we will never understand him fully, and he doesn’t expect us to. He just wants us to grow in our knowledge of him and to seek him daily. He wants us to have a relationship with him.
I truly believe that he is eager to show us more of himself - as much as we are able to grasp. As we see him more clearly, we want to see more of him. In all loving relationships we grow into a deeper and more intimate knowledge of one another through trust and faithfulness. The more that we see we can trust someone with our hearts, the more of our hearts we want to share. The more that we know they will be faithful, the more faithful we become. The thing about a relationship with God is that he can always be trusted, he is always faithful. People will let us down, but God will never let us down.
Heavenly, Holy God,
We know that you are powerful and mighty, that you are wise and creative and we want to know you more. We want to understand you better. The only way that we can communicate with you is through your precious Holy Spirit. We have accepted Jesus Christ as our lord and savior, we know that he died for our sins, but we know that there is so much more to know and so we ask your spirit to speak to our hearts today. Tell us what direction to take, speak to us clearly to know what you want us to do today. We ask your spirit to teach us through your word, through Christians that teach us, through the world around us. Fill us to overflowing, let us know so much of you that we cannot hold it all. Only you can do this and we long to glimpse you in our lives today. Because of Jesus, we pray. Amen
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