How Big is Your God?
This is my 13th entry since last September, in an ongoing look at Isaiah 40, my favorite chapter in the Bible.
While working outside yesterday morning, I had an encounter with God. As I was listening to worship music I dropped to my knees and began to weep. On my knees, although I don’t recall the exact words, I began to pray, “God, I’m so unworthy……... I don’t deserve to know you…. I don’t deserve to be surrounded by such majesty, I don’t deserve to be surrounded by such beauty and wonder. I am such a sinner. I fall so far short of what you want for me….yet I’m so in awe and amazed by you.”
Not only had I been singing the lyrics back to God while surrounded by the wonder of creation, but I was also pondering verse 12 of Isaiah 40. These moments in life, when a mere mortal glimpses the immortal, are wonderful, life changing, humbling, and have a way, at least for me, of rearranging ‘my’ world. They also remind me how desperately I need a savior, and how incredible it is to know that I have one, and that Jesus is my Savior.
Isaiah 40:12 states, “Who has measured the waters in the hollow of his hand, or with the breadth of his hand marked off the heavens? Who has held the dust of the earth in a basket, or weighed the mountains on the scales and the hills in a balance?”
As this verse helped lead me closer to God, to an encounter with him yesterday, or as Henry Blackaby might say, to ‘experiencing God,’ I’ve decided to turn the verse into a prayer:
Dear God, since you are so big and incredible, that you can hold all of the water on this planet in the hollow of your hand, without spilling a drop, please hold me, when I’m scared, and tired, and in need of help, and when the only one who knows my deepest fears and hopes is you. Please also remind me that you are best able to collect and carefully regather the scattered fragments of my existence, as you hold them in your tender care.
Dear Jesus, since you are so big and awesome, and can mark out the galaxies, and star clusters, even the ones so far away that we can not see without a telescope, can you also note the things in my life, and family, and in our nation, that need your help today, even the ones that seem so distant, far away, and unattainable. Please remind me also, in the vastness of your universe, with an unfathomable number of stars, that you not only count every star, but that you also keep track of every human life on the earth, and that you also take note of every millisecond of our existence.
Dear God, since you know that I don’t even like dust, and that I am constantly trying to get rid of it, yet, you are so awesome that you can count all of it, from the farthest and dustiest corners of this planet. Yucky as it is, please take the tiniest specs of dirt in my character, that mar my existence, my relationship with you, and those around me. Please rid my life of these tiniest particles that I am not proud of, and that nobody can see but you. Please not only weigh them, but remove them, all that dust, from my life, either by your heavenly broom and dust pan, or the valiant vacuum cleaner, of your tenderest mercy.
And dearest Heavenly Father, since you are able to put the mountains and hills on a scale and weigh them, something that seems beyond all ability to be able to do, could you use your might and power to lift the heaviest things in my life. Please raise up and remove the weights that weigh me down the most, that I could never lift on my own, and put them on your balance, weigh them, and take care of them. And would you do the same for my family, community, and our nation, and take the heaviest problems of all, like this pandemic, or other ones that perplex and discourage us, and not only measure them, but give us your help, the deepest measures of your love, and be with us, as we face them.
Dear brother or sister in Christ, or friend along the journey of life, I hope you are being as deeply touched by this amazing journey into Isaiah 40 as I am. As we face a new week, and the soon arrival of Spring, may the enormous God of all time, space, and eternity, give you a week deeply surrounded by his love and care. Perhaps also, you can smile along with me recognizing how awesome, amazing, and big God is, and perhaps use my suggestion of a prayer based on Isaiah 40:12, as you answer the question, how big is your God?