Understanding Holy Courage, Embracing Godly Fear Sample

How Big is Your God?

It’s hard for the limited human mind to fathom the expanse of a great God. Have you ever tried it? Have you ever thought about eternity until your mind starts to spin? Have you stood before the ocean and wondered what Isaiah meant when he told us God cups all of it in the palm of His hand? It’s a lot, right? Unfathomable.

And sometimes, in our inability to understand it all, to grasp His limitless love, His immense grace, His might and power, we limit Him. We confine Him to the limits of our understanding, which sounds vaguely familiar to fashioning a god of our own tastes and desires. Culturally, we swing a pendulum wide to what we can comprehend; or, yes, even what is on trend in the church as if we forget that our God is unchanging—the same yesterday, today, and forever (Hebrews 13:8).

That powerful God who parted seas is ours today. The One who loves to make Himself known in signs and wonders is alive and active now. The righteous and merciful One is just as sovereign now as He was in the Old Testament, friend. And we cannot afford to let our everyday affairs, the sin that so easily ensnares, or even the changing tides of culture convince or distract us otherwise.

I want to challenge you to see Him anew. Read Hebrews 12:18-29 today and watch the Old and New Testament collide. Read how Moses trembled in fear at the appearance of God. Learn what the One who speaks from heaven has to say to us here and now, about this kingdom that cannot be shaken and the grace by which we may serve Him acceptably with reverence and awe; or as the New King James Version says, godly fear. 

Sometimes the cure for our nearsighted nature is not to zoom in, to grab a lens so we can look closer and stare harder; but rather to zoom out, to become woefully aware of the greatness of this God we serve.

The Psalms are wonderful at guiding us here. We can consider the heavens and sing of His majesty in Psalm 8. Or pray as Moses did in Psalm 90. We can stake our claim as David does in Psalm 18, or learn the blessings of those who fear Him in Psalm 25. He’s a big God, friend. So much bigger than we spend our days acknowledging. And I wonder what our lives might look like if we earnestly began to try. What if we fought the speed and pace of culture and took time in our day to truly acknowledge God for who He is? He is limitless, friend. Let’s keep pressing in, keep learning, keep knowing and fearing Him here.