July 20, 2023
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I was blessed one time by an observation made by a three-year-old granddaughter. A friend asked her, "What's your granddad up to these days?" To which she simply replied: "Oh, he's getting taller." I am? I'd like to think she's right. I think I'll go measure.
I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "A Bigger God Than Ever."
I actually wish my granddaughter had been right. Unfortunately, I am, in spite of whatever she have thought by that wonderful observation, just as vertically challenged as I've ever been. But her comment brought to mind a memorable conversation from C. S. Lewis' Chronicles of Narnia. Narnia is this magical land where the animals talk and where a majestic lion named Aslan is the ultimate king. Those stories offer some powerful analogies of our experience with Jesus, the One the Bible calls "the Lion of the Tribe of Judah."
In one story, Lucy, one of the children, has not seen Aslan for a long time. When she does, there's a really tender reunion. And Lucy asks, "Aslan, have you gotten bigger?" To which Aslan replies, "Oh, no my child, you have. And the more you grow, the bigger I will seem." Wow!
That's exactly how God intends for it to be as we grow in our relationship with Him. Our God seems to get bigger and bigger as we grow. My granddaughter might have thought I was getting taller. I'm wasn't. And God, of course, doesn't get bigger, but He wants us to see more and more how big He really is. The bigger your God is, the bigger things you'll believe Him for, the bigger your life can be. We have, for too long, allowed our problems and our pain to loom so large that they have obscured the greatness of our God who is so much bigger than the things that are bigger than we are. They're like my thumb blocking the view of the sun, this little thing blocking my view of something massive.
In fact, God plans our life-journey in such a way that we'll see more and more of what an awesome God He is. Let's look at a memorable example in Exodus 14, beginning with verse 13. Happens to be our word for today from the Word of God. God's people have the Red Sea in front of them and the mightiest army on earth behind them. Well, facing one of history's greatest "Mission Impossible" moments, Moses tells the people: "Stand firm and you will see the deliverance the Lord will bring you today. The Lord will fight for you...the Egyptians will know that I am the Lord." So, God parted the waters, His people walked through on dry land, and waters came together again and drowned the entire Egyptian army.
And the Bible says, "Then Moses and the Israelites sang this song to the Lord: 'The Lord is highly exalted...the Lord is my strength and my song...the Lord is a warrior; the Lord is His name...Who among the gods is like You, O Lord?...majestic in holiness, awesome in glory, working wonders." How did they discover the majesty of the God they belonged to? Through something so big that only God could do it. How will you discover what an awesome God you have? The same way.
And that may explain some of the "why" of what you're facing right now. It's God's plan to grow your view of Him through challenges that are bigger than your resources but not bigger than His. He may be putting you through something that's stretching your faith, but it's all part of the plan to give you a front row seat on the greatness of your God, to blow the lid off your relationship with Him, and to teach you the unshakeable peace of being able to say, "God's God and I'm not."
You haven't even begun to see the glory and power of the God you belong to. You need some very big mountains to see what a very big God you have. So don't be frustrated over the challenge you're facing. Celebrate it as your ticket to a front row seat on the glory of God. Because the more you grow, the bigger He will be.