Vision Problems
A popular contemporary Christian song has as its chorus the rhetorical question, “How Great is our God ?”. The answer is obvious. Our God is really, really, really great. However, if we turn the Chris Tomlin lyrics around slightly, we have a very powerful question. If we ask, “How great is our God?” we find a question that may help us immensely in our Christian experience. Let me explain.
If you are like me, as life comes at you it is easy to get overwhelmed by it or very frustrated in it. It is easy to have in one’s soul a sense of discouragement. I think that all of that is normal. However, as a believer in the LORD Almighty and a follower of His Son Jesus Christ it seems my perspective should be much different. When it isn’t different, someone could rightfully ask, “How great is your God?”
I think most of us need to get a fresh vision of the greatness of God. One need only think about the universe for a few moments and one will be awestruck by just how great our God is.
Do you know that the Milky Way, the Galaxy we live in, is 5.88 Billion light years across. That means if I start on one side of the galaxy and if I travel at the speed of light, which is 186,000 miles per second, in just about 6 billion years I will arrive at the other side. And remember, our galaxy is just one of billions of galaxies in the universe.
We don’t know how wide, deep or high the known universe is because we can’t measure it. It is impossible to measure. We do know that it is humongous. It was created by, as one author has put it, a “giamongous God”. God’s immensity is demonstrated by the fact that He spoke this universe into existence from nothing. The Bible also tells us that He measures the universe with the width of His hand (Isaiah 40:12). This poetic language should make us pause and exclaim “How great is our God!”.
I think two things happen when I understand how great God is. Psalm 8, where the Psalmist proclaims “Oh Lord, our Lord, how majestic is your name in all the earth” brings out these two truths. In light of the immensity of God the Psalmist (David) sees how small and insignificant we really are. He says “When I consider your heavens, the work of your fingers, the moon and the stars, which you have set in place, what is mankind that you are mindful of them, human beings that you care for them? (Ps 8:3-4)”. Then he realizes how special and important we really are to God. He continues, “You have made them a little lower than the angels and crowned them with glory and honor. You made them rulers over the works of your hands; you put everything under their feet (Ps. 8:5-6)”.
God is great and His love for us is great. You and I could not be more loved or better cared for as His children. In addition, He has great plans for us, both for now and in eternity. What we need to do is focus on Him and who He really is. As we do so those enormous overwhelming situations that we are facing will look small in comparison to our great God. Let us sing with the ancient hymn writer, “Be Thou my Vision, O Lord of my heart; Naught be all else to me, save that Thou art, Thou my best Thought, by day or by night, Waking or sleeping, Thy presence my light.”
Blessings, Dave Watson, An Urban Christian
