The similarities between the reading of Nehemiah and “If you Want to Walk on Water” by John Ortberg so far are starting to freak me out. Maybe this is all leading up to something. Maybe I am losing my mind. In either case, I need to ask myself one question, how big is my God?
I couldn’t miss the fact that in today’s text, Nehemiah knew how big his God was. He had huge opposition from every side. Threats, fears, objections and the job was just getting started! Yet he didn’t run and hide. He didn’t back down. He trusted God and made a plan to keep the job moving. Nehemiah did his part while trusting God to do His.
It reminded me of this quote from John Ortberg:
“Courage” he says. “I AM! Don’t be afraid.” I believe that. It is part of my creed. I have committed my life to teaching others about it. Yet all too often my life does not reflect it. All too often I shrink back when I should confront; I worry when I could pray; I cling when I could generously share; I stay in the boat when I could walk on the water.
How true is that? How often do I not trust the size of God when it comes to matters of confrontation, prayer, giving and walking on faith? Nehemiah knew the size of his God. What’s remarkable is that his God, is my God too.
Yes, our God is the same ” yesterday, today and forever”!
It’s just that there are times it’s easy to look around at the circumstances and get dismayed; when we should look above them and into the face of Jesus, wherein lies our hope , our strength and our joy.
Maybe it’s because “We have this treasure in earthen vessels that the glory and excellence may be of God and not of us” or something quite like that. 🙂
We’re ever growing, and learning to trust in this walk of faith.
So true…
I’m so impressed that WE are all reading the same scriptures and we are pulling so many different ideas. I just finished my post.
But I like this. It’s so true . I look at it as limiting. We tend to limit God.
We have a limit on our credit cards, our AtM and whatever else, so we do the same. Then a HUGE wallop from God comes and He reminds us. That He is Bigger than anything else.
Love this!!
How great is our God indeed. I read about how great He is. I’ve experienced how great He is and yet, from time to time, I put Him inside a box that limits Him. The truth of the matter is we just have no concept of His greatness. He can do even more than we read about, whether it’s building a wall, or parting a sea. He can do so much more – all we have to do is get out of His way. Great post.
May I make a comment here? I’m not following the same study as you are but I took a Theology class this last summer (one of four different classes and my favorite by far) and the one thing that I learned the most about is how we limit God. He is not definable because of our finite minds. He is both like and unlike what we think we know about him. He is far more than we can ever imagine. I know this is basics for most of you. The picture you have today is how big our God is. He knows our past, present, and future right now, all at one time and he loves us anyway. Now THAT is a big God!