Greater Than We Know

 God is greater than we know. In our fast paced society, few really jam on the brakes long enough to meditate on the greatness of God. That happened to me this morning. I cannot say I was looking for it. I opened the Bible dutifully to read. I prayed a very common prayer to a very uncommon God to start. 

Something changed. I wrote in my journal, "God, You are greater than I know." With that little sentence, I got whisked away into the vastness of God in a way I have not been recently. I thought about His love. Who am I that God should choose to love me. I am not a man of great talent. Not a celebrity. I have no great list of accomplishments to my name. I am often inconsistent. Why should God choose to love me when I bring nothing to the table for His benefit. To put that another way, He does not need me or anything I can offer Him. That makes His love all the more mind boggling. He chooses to love ordinary me in extraordinary ways. He does the same for you. 

I think about His holiness. His being set apart from the rest of creation. He is other worldly. Sacred. Pure. Righteous. Without blemish or imperfection. Perfect in all of His ways. Those concepts are stunning. He is right. Always right. His holiness is steadfast from generation to generation. He does not change with the prevailing politically correct winds. He remains constantly vigilant in His holiness. He does not bend or fudge the rules to meet the moral or immoral majority. He lays down His laws and demands compliance. Blessings follow those who obey and chastisement for those who rebel. He has maintained this position since creation thousands of years ago. 

God is Almighty. He is all powerful. There are no limits to His strength, power or might. He can do anything He pleases and purposes to do. He can install and remove rulers at His whim. He can build and topple nations as it suits Him. He can prosper economic fortunes or bankrupt nations. He can save any lost person no matter how far gone as He intends. He can also hold the wicked to judgment no matter how rich and influential they may have ben in this life. He can provide for any need no matter the amount. He can heal any disease with a spoken word. He can revive any dead church. He can usher in days of spiritual awakenings. He can lift any burden. Answer any prayer. Move any mountain. Cast away any fear. Comfort any brokenhearted. Sustain the weary. Renew the vision of any leader. There is nothing our great God cannot do. 

Trying to explain God is like taking a thimble to the ocean and trying to drain it. It is impossible. God is beyond our ability to fully grasp. He is greater than our minds can conceive. He is beyond our ability to adequately praise and exalt. He is indescribable as Chris Tomlin sang some years ago. How dare we ever show up for a devotion or to a Bible study or worship service in boredom. He is the most fascinating subject to study. The most mesmerizing person to meditate on. He is the most charismatic personality to contemplate. 

Don't fool ourselves. He is greater than we know. Trying to get to know Him is a like a child reading one simple children's books in a huge library of tens of thousands of other books. It like trying to count the grains of sand in the desert. It is like trying to count the stars in the heavens on a moonlit clear night. It is like trying to swim across the ocean.There is more to God than we know. He is the summit of a mountain that we will never be able to top. He is the depths of the oceans of which we will never dive to the bottom. He is far more expansive than outer space. 

The most amazing thing is that He chooses to relate to us. He choose to reveal Himself to us. He longs to be known by us. He needs nothing. He does not need us. He chooses to love and save us anyway. He is worth our pursuit, love, worship and service. He is greater than we know. Give your to the pursuit of knowing this God.