I’ll be the first to admit that I’ve been gripped with doubt before. There have been times in my life when it just seemed like my prayers were hitting the ceiling, and God seemed to be nowhere close. And I know I’m not alone. I know there are many others who have had their faith in God challenged, and who have had trouble trusting Him. Perhaps you’re even in that place in your life right now. But I have just a few words to encourage you today.
I want to briefly outline four points in God’s character that perfectly complement one another and are extremely relevant in our Christian lives. I want to share these to the point of increasing our faith in Him. Proverbs 3:5 says, “Trust in the Lord with all thine heart, and lean not unto thine own understanding.” In Psalm 37:25 David proclaims, “I have been young, and now am old; yet have I not seen the righteous forsaken, nor his seed begging bread.” Admittedly, we don’t always feel like trusting our Saviour with everything in our lives, but hopefully after I’m done, it’ll be easier for you to turn control of your situation over to God.
First of all, God is omniscient, All-knowing. I Samuel 2:3 states that the Lord is a God of knowledge. We know He created the universe, including every ounce of knowledge that is found herein. He knows even the trivial things, such as how many hairs are on our heads. Read Psalm 139:1-4 and just think of how much God has to know to know you that well. He created in six days what humans have spent the last 4,000 years at least learning about. The more we increase in knowledge, the more we realize that God created more knowledge than we ever thought.
And God’s knowledge is not just a head knowledge; He’s experienced it all as well. He took on the form of a man to live through all the things we have to live through (See Philippians 2:6-8 and I Timothy 3:16). He went through heartache, rejection, temptation, disappointment, mockery, and probably even depression. And I’m not talking about His crucifixion. He surely went through these as an adolescent and teenager, just like all of us.
We know that, as God, He was perfect, but as part of the package deal of being a man and in submission to the flesh, He can now say that He’s been there and done all that. He was tempted in ALL points that we are tempted in, and yet He remained sinless (Heb 4:15).
Second, God is a loving and caring God. “For God so loved the world…” (John 3:16), “God commendeth His love toward us…” (Romans 5:8), “Casting all your care upon Him, for He careth for you.” (I Peter 5:7), these are all verses we hear quite often, and are very familiar with. We are told frequently of God’s love toward us. Though we sometimes feel wretched and the chief of sinners like Paul did, we can still take comfort knowing that God loves us enough to look past that. We’re told twice in I John 4 that God is love (vs. 8,16). This means that God wants what’s best for us. He wants us to be strong. He wants us to be wise, and holy and Godly. He wants to bless us, and He’s preparing a special place for us all in Heaven, all because of His everlasting love for us.
Third, God is omnipotent, all-powerful. The old Sunday School song says, “My God is so big, so strong, and so mighty, there’s nothing my God cannot do.” Go ahead, sing it if you know it. Psalm 62:11 declares, “Power belongeth unto God.” And I like Romans 13:1 “Let every soul be subject unto the higher powers. For there is no power but of God: the powers that be are ordained of God.” Nothing in this world has power without God’s approval. Just as Satan needed God’s permission to afflict Job, he needs permission to do anything else he does. This means that no amount of any kind of power is going to be exercised without God knowing about it.
Also, just look at the thousands of miracles performed from Genesis to Revelation: Creation, the Flood, the Red Sea crossing, the conquest of Canaan, the three Hebrew children in the firey furnace, the miraculous birth of Jesus Christ and all the miracles performed by His hand, the signs and wonders that followed the Apostles in the book of Acts, the incredible things that are prophesied in the book of Revelation, and that’s not even a small fraction of the many displays of God’s power found in the Bible. God has power over sin, death, and Hell, and He has power over your situation that you may be facing.
Finally, our God is a wise God. I Timothy describes Him as “the only wise God,” I Corinthians 1:25 says this, “Because the foolishness of God is wiser than men,” and the book of Proverbs is rife with encouragements to seek out wisdom and understanding. Clearly, God is full of wisdom.
Wisdom goes beyond knowledge in that it suggests sound judgement and experience. Knowledge is to wisdom as a picture or painting is to the real thing. Wisdom come from having been there and done that, as I mentioned previously. We hear of wise, old men far more often than we hear of wise young men. The young ones are always wise guys or wisecracks. But God has the wisdom of all the ages. He’s been around since before the beginning of time. He’s seen it all. But Proverbs 8:11-14, 22-30 tells us that God possessed wisdom before He even began laying any foundations of the earth. Before time, before matter, before anything physical existed, He delighted in wisdom. This all means that God knows what works and what doesn’t. He knows the best solutions and the best timing for everything.
In conclusion, allow me to recapitulate: God knows everything, including your very unique situation. He loves you and cares about you enough to do something about what you’re going through, and to give you only the very best there is to offer. God has all the power to do exactly what needs to be done in your situation, and He is wise enough to bring about the perfect solution at the right time for the best results.
“Finally, my brethren, be strong in the Lord and in the power of His might.” (Eph 6:10)
Good job on the post, Bro. Oh, and the video on this blog was excellent!