I love the song called What Do I Know Of Holy by Addison Road. One of the lyrics says, “I think I made You too small.” This lyric hits me every time I hear it. The reason is that I think we all, at one time or another, make God way too small when in fact He is anything but small.
My Bible reading right now is Moses giving the Israelites a recap of what has transpired over the years in Egypt and the desert. He recounts how Israel has turned their back on God which is a theme repeated over and over again throughout the whole Old Testament.
Moses talks about how they agreed to send spies out into the land which God had promised to them. This is how Moses recounts it in Deuteronomy.
“The idea seemed good to me; so I selected twelve of you, one man from each tribe. They left and went up into the hill country, and came to the Valley of Eshcol and explored it. Taking with them some of the fruit of the land, they brought it down to us and reported, ‘It is a good land that the Lord our God is giving us.’ But you were unwilling to go up; you rebelled against the command of the Lord your God. You grumbled in your tents and said, ‘The Lord hates us; so he brought us out of Egypt to deliver us into the hands of the Amorites to destroy us. Where can we go? Our brothers have made us lose heart. They say, “The people are stronger and taller than we are; the cities are large, with walls up to the sky. We even saw the Anakites there.”‘ Then I said to you, ‘Do not be terrified; do not be afraid of them. The Lord your God, who is going before you, will fight for you, as he did for you in Egypt, before your very eyes, and in the desert. There you saw how the Lord your God carried you, as a father carries his son, all the way you went until you reached this place.’ In spite of this, you did not trust in the Lord your God, who went ahead of you on your journey, in fire by night and in a cloud by day, to search out places for you to camp and to show you the way you should go.” Deuteronomy 1:23-33, NIV
It is easy to judge the Israelites for not believing in God. How could they not believe we might ask? God parted the sea for them and covered them with a cloud by day and lead them with fire at night. How could they not believe that God could do all things for them?
However, this is exactly what we do every day! God asks something of us, and it seems too big. We are afraid of the unknown. How many times do “our brothers” make us lose heart. I am talking about other believers as well as non-believers. Sometimes, we trust more in what “our brothers” have to say that what God is saying to us.
We go into our modern day tents called houses and talk ourselves out of what God is calling us to do, because we are afraid. Believers do it with politics and worry about the future of America. God calls us to go on a mission’s trip, but you don’t have any money. We are afraid to let go of a relationship which might not be the best for us, because we don’t trust that God has something better for us later.
Carl and I walked away from both of our jobs when we had a 10 day old baby. We were in perfect peace, because we knew we were in the center of God’s perfect will. The truth is what God asks you to do does not always seems to make logical, worldly sense, but it makes sense to Him. We have to trust that whatever He asks us to do that He will lead us through it all. Just as a father who carries his son until they reach their destination. That is not a small God!
“Great is our Lord, and abundant in power;
his understanding is beyond measure.”
Psalm 147:5, ESV
