Encouragement for Today - May 22, 2007

May 22, 2007

Completely Indescribable

“Although you have not seen him, you love him; and even though you do not see him now, you believe in him and rejoice with an indescribable and glorious joy.” I Peter 1:8 (NRSV)

Devotion:

I am rarely speechless, but sometimes when I really contemplate God and His ways, I can find myself tongue tied. Paul was much more eloquent than I. In Romans 11:33-36 he writes, “Oh, the depth of the riches of the wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable his judgments, and his paths beyond tracing out! ’Who has known the mind of the Lord? Or who has been his counselor?’ ‘Who has ever given to God, that God should repay him?’ For from him and through him and to him are all things. To him be the glory forever! Amen.” (NIV)

God is truly BIG, and I am learning to magnify Him. That’s a word that we use in church sometimes, but what does it really mean? One summer at camp, a counselor taught us how to make a circle with our hand and inspect a small space on the ground through it. Even though the size of the ants and the blades of grass didn’t change, they seemed larger when you studied them in their context. The same thing happens when we study God’s Word, the Bible, and fill our thoughts with what we learn about His character. His true greatness doesn’t change; my concept of His greatness just grows! So many times, I’ve done the opposite. I’ve looked at God through my own understanding, and it has the same effect as looking at Him through the wrong end of binoculars. He is diminished and small in my sight.

As I study God’s Word, I am increasingly amazed by His never-changing character. I’m in awe of His judgment and council that is always right. I find it inconceivable that He created this complex universe. I am humbled by my infinitesimal smallness in comparison to His immeasurable bigness. God Himself says that my estimation of things is correct. In Isaiah 55:8-9, God tells us, “’For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways,’ declares the Lord. ‘As the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts‘” (NIV). As I look through a circle made by my hand, I am only able to see glimpses of the greatness of God, and in my humanness I’m completely unable to magnify Him to His real size. Our God truly is an awesome God. I want you to stop reading for a moment and meditate on these thoughts.

Have you magnified the Lord in your heart and mind? Now get this—He created you for a personal relationship with Him. He is the God who reaches down to take hold of you. He loves you and wants to rescue you from sin. He wants to set your feet on the firm rock of His Son, Jesus. He stoops down to make you great - read Psalm 18. David, who was awed by this same thought, writes in Psalm 8: 3-4, 9, “When I consider your heavens, the work of your fingers, the moon and the stars, which you have set in place, what is man that you are mindful of him, the son of man that you care for him? O Lord, our Lord, how majestic is your name in all the earth!” (NIV). As big as God is, he is interested in you. He loves you. How will you respond to Him today?

Dear Lord, You are indescribable. In all our humanness, we cannot grasp You in all Your perfection, but You are different than all other gods that are exalted in our world. You aren’t far away. You reach out to us through the Bible and through the life, death and resurrection of your Son, Jesus. Help me to accept Your love today and may my faith grow. In Jesus’ Name, Amen.