Thursday, July 29, 2010

How Big God Is

by Donna L. Watkins

The Bible tells us we are engraved on the palm of God's hand (Isaiah 49). That may seem unreal to you, but God could engrave every person's name on one of His hands because God is literally so big!

© 2010 Donna L. Watkins - Double-crested Cormorant on Branch - Savannah River National Wildlife 
Isaiah 40:12 asks, "Who hath measured the waters in the hollow of his hand, and meted out heaven with the span, and comprehended the dust of the earth in a measure, and weighed the mountains in scales, and the hills in a balance?" Of course the answer is that only God has. And when you think about being able to measure all the waters in the world in the hollow of his hand, that pictures a very big God.

Water covers seventy percent (70%) of our planet. It is beyond our imagination to see and comprehend how large God is to be able to hold that much water in the hollow of His hand. The Hebrew word for measured in this passage is 'madad'. It means "to measure or stretch" so can you picture a hand spread wide from thumb to pinkie as wide as the oceans of the world?

Have you ever stood by the ocean and looked as far as the eye can see and then left and right as far also? It's incredible how large even one ocean appears to us from one point on land. When you look at a global view of the planet, the amount of water is beyond our imagination. And remember that He holds it ALL in His hand.

Sometimes when people read things like this they think it's just a metaphor or figure of expression, but we need to ponder the reality of it. If we could begin to fathom that our God is this big ... and that He has engraved us in his palm ... well, I think we would have less trouble trusting God.

The problem is that we often don't see God even as big as our current crises or problem. That's where anxiety comes in. Anxiety is nothing other than a lack of faith and inability to trust God to take care of our lives and circumstances. The Bible tells us to be anxious for nothing and compares our troubles and worries to how God provides for His Creation, commenting that we are more important than even those to Him (Matthew 6).

We need to increase our view of God. We need to trust that He is in every situation. I like the illustration I read recently of a situation.

The story was told of a who man stopped and got a drink from a well and dropped his wallet. A second man came along, got a drink, picked up the wallet and looked through it and put it in his pocket and left. A third man came and got a drink and was very tired, so he laid down nearby to rest and fell asleep. By now the first man realized he had lost his wallet and that it had happened at the well, so we returned to find the third man asleep. He promptly awakened him and told him to give him back the wallet. The man had no idea what he was talking about but the first man was so angry he killed the man.

Now ... if somebody was overseeing it all, they would ask, "Why did God allow a thief to get away with stealing the wallet and then allow an innocent man to be murdered?" Things like this make us want to think that God is not in control and that His ways do not make sense to us. They aren't supposed to. The Bible tells us that His ways are NOT our ways (Isaiah 55:8) so we aren't supposed to be able to understand all things.

But, if God were to explain the facts behind this story they would be: "The first man's wallet was filled with money that his father had stolen from the second man's father. The second man recognized that by looking through the wallet and only took what was rightfully his (and probably thought God was answering prayers). The third man was a murderer but had not been brought to justice.

Now that you 'know all' like God does, things look very different.

So it is with our own lives. We don't know all the details and things that we cannot see. That's why we are to have faith in God and trust Him to direct our steps and know that He has a plan for us that is good not evil (Jeremiah 29:11). It's all about trust and the more we do it the more blessed we become because we literally tear ourselves up inside trying to take care of our own lives and control all circumstances.

We must cast our care on Him knowing He does care for us (I Peter 5:7) and He will make all things good (Romans 8:28). Give up trying to juggle and handle it all. We are human and were not designed for it. Ask your Father right now to help you be more faith-filled and to be able to trust Him more with all of your life. After all ... if you trusted Him with your salvation and believe He'll take you to Heaven, you may as well believe He's got this life on earth figured out also.

This website is sponsored by The Herbs Place, distributor of Nature's Sunshine herbs, supplements, essential oils and more at wholesale prices.

The photo(s) and article are copyrighted. You may use either of them if you include the following credit and active link back to this website: © 2010 Donna L. Watkins - This article was reprinted with permission from TheNatureInUs.com. The link to use is: www.TheNatureInUs.com.

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