Our Response to God's Majesty
22/10/08 11:08 Filed in:Weekly
Devotional
So,
if we now understand God's majesty. If we see Him for
who He truly is. At least as much as we physical and
spiritual can. Then what should our response be?
Isaiah 40 answers that question for us as well. Let's
look at a few questions God asks of us in response to
His greatness.
First, in verse 25, God asks, "To whom then will you compare me, that I should be like him?" We are being challenged here about our wrong thoughts of God. How often do we compare God to various things. Or simply see him as an old man like grandfather time, google him if you don't know him. Often we let our thoughts become too human concerning God. Luther said that. We simply view God as a greater human. We compare him to different ideas or people, they are simply not GREAT enough! We forget he has LIMITLESS power and wisdom. Limitless...no boundaries..nothing holding him back... Do we understand the implications of that?
But not only is his power limitless, his wisdom is. Wisdom is not simply knowledge. Wisdom is defined as the "right" use or exercise of knowledge. This would be the act of wisdom. The "faculty" of wisdom is the ability to discern or understand what is most just, most proper, and most useful. So God's limitless wisdom is the ability to know and follow through on the smartest plan, the best or right way. So we have a God who not only has the power to follow through he has the wisdom to know the exact right way to do something. So nothing stumps him! Either mentally or physically! That is out great God! Look at it this way, If God only lacked power and no wisdom or at least not limitless wisdom he would be a tyrant. He would be a God who was unsure which is the best path for a person.
Maybe you don't know what your called to do in life. God would be just as stuck as you are. It would be like us asking the question should we nuke a country and not have any understanding of why we should nuke them. The flip side is if God had limitless wisdom but not limitless power he would be weak and ineffective in trying to follow what he knows is right. A weak man with no ability. Often because we too are limited and weak we can imagine that God is at some points.
The challenge is: learn to acknowledge the full majesty (greatness) of your INCOMPARABLE God and Savior. So what is the next questions? Verse 27 says, "Why do you say, O Jacob, and speak, O Israel, 'My way is hidden from the Lord, and my right is disregarded by my God'?" Not only do we tend to have wrong thoughts about our God but we also have wrong thoughts about ourselves. We can often think God has abandoned us. We tend to think this ESPECIALLY when something bad happens in our lives. I doubt, not to belittle your experiences, yet I doubt any of us have experienced what Job experienced. God never abandoned him through that whole episode of his life. He surely will not abandon us.
We cannot forget that he does not abandon anyone that he sets His love on! We must NEVER think of God has forgetting, or overlooking, or losing interest in, the state and needs of his people. We can very often think God doesn't care otherwise he would intervene or stop it or have not let it happen. Yet again, we forget he has limitless power AND LIMITLESS WISDOM.
The final question to ask ourselves is found in verse 28, it reads, "Have you not known? Have you not heard? The Lord is the everlasting God, the Creator of the ends of the earth. He does not faint or grow weary; his understanding is unsearchable." If anything the question should challenge us or shame us out of our unbelief of who are God is. Packer reinterprets the passage by saying, "What is the trouble," God asks. "Have you been imaging that I, the Creator, have grown old and tired? Has nobody ever told you the truth about Me?"
How little we focus upon our God who does not age, who was the same yesterday, today and tomorrow. How we need to slow down! Stop and think, do I really believe that God is who he says he is? Do I know who he says he is? Be amazed by our God! That can only happen when you take the time to slow down and ask him to reveal it to you. Do not let your thoughts about God be come TOO human. Take the time to correct your thoughts of God and yourselves. God is God, the creator, limitless in power AND wisdom. You have never left, and will never leave his hand as long as you trust in him as your savior and king!
Spend time this week asking God to remind you or begin teaching you how amazing and great he is. But remember, he tends to most reveal this through his Word. While we can see this in nature, we better understand it through the lens of Scripture.
First, in verse 25, God asks, "To whom then will you compare me, that I should be like him?" We are being challenged here about our wrong thoughts of God. How often do we compare God to various things. Or simply see him as an old man like grandfather time, google him if you don't know him. Often we let our thoughts become too human concerning God. Luther said that. We simply view God as a greater human. We compare him to different ideas or people, they are simply not GREAT enough! We forget he has LIMITLESS power and wisdom. Limitless...no boundaries..nothing holding him back... Do we understand the implications of that?
But not only is his power limitless, his wisdom is. Wisdom is not simply knowledge. Wisdom is defined as the "right" use or exercise of knowledge. This would be the act of wisdom. The "faculty" of wisdom is the ability to discern or understand what is most just, most proper, and most useful. So God's limitless wisdom is the ability to know and follow through on the smartest plan, the best or right way. So we have a God who not only has the power to follow through he has the wisdom to know the exact right way to do something. So nothing stumps him! Either mentally or physically! That is out great God! Look at it this way, If God only lacked power and no wisdom or at least not limitless wisdom he would be a tyrant. He would be a God who was unsure which is the best path for a person.
Maybe you don't know what your called to do in life. God would be just as stuck as you are. It would be like us asking the question should we nuke a country and not have any understanding of why we should nuke them. The flip side is if God had limitless wisdom but not limitless power he would be weak and ineffective in trying to follow what he knows is right. A weak man with no ability. Often because we too are limited and weak we can imagine that God is at some points.
The challenge is: learn to acknowledge the full majesty (greatness) of your INCOMPARABLE God and Savior. So what is the next questions? Verse 27 says, "Why do you say, O Jacob, and speak, O Israel, 'My way is hidden from the Lord, and my right is disregarded by my God'?" Not only do we tend to have wrong thoughts about our God but we also have wrong thoughts about ourselves. We can often think God has abandoned us. We tend to think this ESPECIALLY when something bad happens in our lives. I doubt, not to belittle your experiences, yet I doubt any of us have experienced what Job experienced. God never abandoned him through that whole episode of his life. He surely will not abandon us.
We cannot forget that he does not abandon anyone that he sets His love on! We must NEVER think of God has forgetting, or overlooking, or losing interest in, the state and needs of his people. We can very often think God doesn't care otherwise he would intervene or stop it or have not let it happen. Yet again, we forget he has limitless power AND LIMITLESS WISDOM.
The final question to ask ourselves is found in verse 28, it reads, "Have you not known? Have you not heard? The Lord is the everlasting God, the Creator of the ends of the earth. He does not faint or grow weary; his understanding is unsearchable." If anything the question should challenge us or shame us out of our unbelief of who are God is. Packer reinterprets the passage by saying, "What is the trouble," God asks. "Have you been imaging that I, the Creator, have grown old and tired? Has nobody ever told you the truth about Me?"
How little we focus upon our God who does not age, who was the same yesterday, today and tomorrow. How we need to slow down! Stop and think, do I really believe that God is who he says he is? Do I know who he says he is? Be amazed by our God! That can only happen when you take the time to slow down and ask him to reveal it to you. Do not let your thoughts about God be come TOO human. Take the time to correct your thoughts of God and yourselves. God is God, the creator, limitless in power AND wisdom. You have never left, and will never leave his hand as long as you trust in him as your savior and king!
Spend time this week asking God to remind you or begin teaching you how amazing and great he is. But remember, he tends to most reveal this through his Word. While we can see this in nature, we better understand it through the lens of Scripture.
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