“Then Job answered the LORD and said:
‘I know that you can do all things,
and that no purpose of yours can be thwarted.
“Who is this that hides counsel without knowledge?”
Therefore I have uttered what I did not understand,
things too wonderful for me, which I did not know.
“Hear, and I will speak;
I will question you, and you make it known to me.”
I had heard of you by the hearing of the ear,
but now my eye sees you;
therefore I despise myself,
and repent in dust and ashes.’” [1]
“Your God is Too Small” is the provocative title of a little book written by Anglican Canon J. B. Phillips over seven decades ago. Canon Phillips was challenging British post-war culture to examine their concepts of God. Consequently, he has challenged all professing Christians since that time with the bold assertion that, “Your God is Too Small!”
Phillips argued that many, perhaps even most, professing Christians held an inadequate conception of God. He was correct! Modern Christians do not have a God who is too big! In fact, we who profess to follow the Son of God have too often crafted a god who is small enough to be handled as we desire. We create a god who is convenient—always there when we need him, but never intrusive. The god we seek does not make us feel badly about our behaviour or our choices; he doesn’t censure us for our self-centred ways—in fact, he builds our esteem. Perhaps the reason we have a god that is small enough to handle is that we have never met the True and Living God.
Professing Christians are often guilty of claiming to believe God, and yet living as though God somehow does not figure in the conduct of life. Let me give a few examples of what I mean. Christians are quick to admit that prayer changes things, that God answers prayer. Then, when trouble arises, the last thing we do is pray. When we do pray, our focus is almost always on attempting to instruct God on the outcome we want rather than trusting that He knows what is best for us.
We who profess our faith in the Son of God speak of the value of our church. We want the benefits of being part of the Community of Faith, but we aren’t willing to invest ourselves into the lives of others. We speak of spiritual gifts, but our focus on those gifts is almost inevitably on how we may be benefitted rather than how we may build up others, how we may encourage others, or how we may comfort others. Our focus is inward, rather than outward. Out goal is to care for ourselves, even though this means that we are neglecting our responsibility to the broader Community of Faith.
We are quick to speak of Jesus as King of life, and then we complain because we can’t do what we want to do. If things aren’t going our way, we’ll just quit serving, even though we know quite well that the church wherein God placed us depends on our participation. I’ve heard this in various iterations throughout the years of my service before the Master. “Well, the church didn’t do what I think they should do. I’ll show them! I’ll just quit giving. I’ll just quit attending services. I’ll become my own church!”
We want a Big God when we are in trouble—a God big enough to deliver us; but we are less enthusiastic about God when that Big God doesn’t act like we think He should. We are deeply offended when the Lord fails to meet our expectations. We grouse and pout and complain, as though we are actually the centre of our universe.
We want God to keep us safe when we are threatened by a silent killer, a pandemic that invades the land. However, we chafe under the enforced isolation, the demand for social distancing, the new rules that keep us from going to our favourite restaurant or compels us to stand on the taped marks that keep us apart from others when we go to the grocery store. Oh, yes, we want God to protect us, but we don’t want to be inconvenienced by the demands placed on us.
We sing, “God Will Take Care of You,” all the while feeling ourselves driven to accumulate things because we know we must take care of our own needs. I’m not arguing that we should not prepare for the inevitable by providing for our family, but I am questioning whether gathering all that fills our attics and garages is necessary for life. I’m growing older, having reached what some call an “advanced age.” I’m at last realising that I don’t really need all that has been accumulated over the years of my life.
We read the words of the Qohóleth, and realise the truth of what he has written. “I hated all my toil in which I toil under the sun, seeing that I must leave it to the man who will come after me, and who knows whether he will be wise or a fool? Yet he will be master of all for which I toiled and used my wisdom under the sun. This also is vanity. So I turned about and gave my heart up to despair over all the toil of my labors under the sun, because sometimes a person who has toiled with wisdom and knowledge and skill must leave everything to be enjoyed by someone who did not toil for it. This also is vanity and a great evil. What has a man from all the toil and striving of heart with which he toils beneath the sun? For all his days are full of sorrow, and his work is a vexation. Even in the night his heart does not rest. This also is vanity.
“There is nothing better for a person than that he should eat and drink and find enjoyment in his toil. This also, I saw, is from the hand of God, for apart from him who can eat or who can have enjoyment? For to the one who pleases him God has given wisdom and knowledge and joy, but to the sinner he has given the business of gathering and collecting, only to give to one who pleases God. This also is vanity and a striving after wind” [ECCLESIASTES 2:18-26].
What we need is a Big God, a God big enough to satisfy the deepest longings of our soul. We need a God who can fill us with joy in the midst of a joyless world. We need a God who can supply us with mercy when we are brutalised by a merciless world. We need a God who can cause our life to overflow with grace when we find ourselves isolated and oppressed by those identified with this world. We need a God who will be a friend when our friends desert us. We need a God who sticks closer than a brother when the world has forgotten who we are. We need a God who will love us when we are unlovely. We need a God such as the One Who presented Himself to Job.
GOD IS BIG ENOUGH TO “DO ALL THINGS” — By his own confession, Job admitted that “[God] can do all things.” Years ago, while ministering among the black churches in Dallas County, I often heard a beautiful, powerful song as the congregation worshipped. The people would sing,
God can do anything, anything, anything,
God can do anything but fail.
He can save,
He can heal,
I know He can,
I know He will,
God can do anything but fail.
Those gracious saints would sing, and I knew in my heart that God can do anything! When God has spoken, we are convinced that He will succeed. Unfortunately, too many of us read the words but somehow fail to hear the voice of God. We just cannot believe that God can do anything, despite reading the wonderful deeds He performed for Israel, or what He did through His prophets, or what He did in order to deliver the Apostles. There is a disconnect between what we see God doing and what we long for Him to do.
I’m speaking to some people who need to believe again that God can do anything. I want you to write down the biggest request you can imagine. I want you to think grand thoughts, big thoughts worthy of a big God! Perhaps you need to ask God to heal your wounded marriage. Perhaps you need God to set you free from fear or from depression. Some of you may need to ask God to silence the foe who has been viciously attacking you. I have no doubt that some of you simply need to see God working in the life of your child to turn that child to the path of righteousness.
Let me qualify what I am challenging you to do by cautioning you against writing down some mere request for God to make your life more comfortable. I’m challenging you to write down that one singular request that is so great that it is impossible to believe that anything can ever be done. Seriously, write down the request so that you have a permanent record of what you are seeking. Now, I want you to date the request and sign you name beside the request.
Now, listen to the promise you have received: “Truly, truly, I say to you, whoever believes in me will also do the works that I do; and greater works than these will he do, because I am going to the Father. Whatever you ask in my name, this I will do, that the Father may be glorified in the Son. If you ask me anything in my name, I will do it” [JOHN 14:12-14].
Again, listen to the Master as He promises His people, “If you abide in me, and my words abide in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be done for you. By this my Father is glorified, that you bear much fruit and so prove to be my disciples. As the Father has loved me, so have I loved you. Abide in my love. If you keep my commandments, you will abide in my love, just as I have kept my Father’s commandments and abide in his love. These things I have spoken to you, that my joy may be in you, and that your joy may be full” [JOHN 15:7-11].
Now, listen to the Master as He spoke soon after that first and second promise. “You did not choose me, but I chose you and appointed you that you should go and bear fruit and that your fruit should abide, so that whatever you ask the Father in my name, he may give it to you” [JOHN 15:16].
I’m not asking you to be crazy! I’m not asking you to plead with God to enrich you, or to make your life comfortable. I am asking you to ask God to accomplish some great thing through your life. We serve a great God; and because He is great, He can do whatever we ask so that He will be glorified in His people, in us who believe! That is the thing! God seeks to be glorified in your life. God longs to reveal His power through you so that you glorify Him. The conditions in the promises we just read are not outrageous or difficult; but we are invited to ask the Living God to do impossible things through us. More than that, the Master Himself has said that because we believe in Him, we will do greater things than He did when He walked the dusty trails of Judea so many years past.
Long before Jesus walked in Judea, God promised, “Call to me and I will answer you, and will tell you great and hidden things that you have not known” [JEREMIAH 33:3]. I am naïve enough to believe that God will reveal what lies in the future to those who are willing to give Him glory for what He does, and who avoid seeking to promote self.
Can the Lord deliver you when you face disaster? Most assuredly He can do this. Have you never read the promise of God for those who serve Him?
“He who dwells in the shelter of the Most High
will abide in the shadow of the Almighty.
I will say to the LORD, ‘My refuge and my fortress,
my God, in whom I trust.’
“For he will deliver you from the snare of the fowler
and from the deadly pestilence.
He will cover you with his pinions,
and under his wings you will find refuge;
his faithfulness is a shield and buckler.
You will not fear the terror of the night,
nor the arrow that flies by day,
nor the pestilence that stalks in darkness,
nor the destruction that wastes at noonday.
“A thousand may fall at your side,
ten thousand at your right hand,
but it will not come near you.
You will only look with your eyes
and see the recompense of the wicked.
“Because you have made the LORD your dwelling place—
the Most High, who is my refuge—
no evil shall be allowed to befall you,
no plague come near your tent.”
[PSALM 91:1-10]
Then, the concluding verses of this Psalm make such bold promises as to leave us awestruck. As if the promises made to this point in the Psalm were somehow insufficient to encourage the one who dares look to the Living God, to the Most High, God caps off what He is pledged to do by promising deliverance, protection, answer to his cry for help, divine presence, rescue, honour and long life. Wow! God is pledged to do all this.
“Because he holds fast to me in love, I will deliver him;
I will protect him, because he knows my name.
When he calls to me, I will answer him;
I will be with him in trouble;
I will rescue him and honor him.
With long life I will satisfy him
and show him my salvation.”
[PSALM 91:14-16]
This is what God will do for you, for me, as we dare love Him, as we dare hold fast to Him, as we dare glorify His Name.
I don’t need, nor would I want, a god whom I can control. The last thing I could wish is to be cursed with a god who accedes to my every whim. Such a god would be a pitiful creature of absolutely no value in the storms of life. What I need is a God big enough to hear my plea for His presence Who would then draw me close to Him in the storms of life. I need a God big enough to do whatever is necessary to deliver me from the snare of the fowler, or even to see the snare before it is sprung and guide my steps so that I avoid the trap that was set for me. I need a God who is able to guide me so that I ask for what is necessary to serve Him. I need a God who can do anything. I need a God big enough to hear my prayer and grant me what is required so that His Name is glorified.
GOD IS BIG ENOUGH THAT HE IS SOVEREIGN — Job’s testimony was,
“‘Who is this that hides counsel without knowledge?’
Therefore I have uttered what I did not understand,
things too wonderful for me, which I did not know.”
[JOB 42:3]
“Who is this who conceals My counsel with ignorance” [JOB 42:3 CSB] was God’s question of Job; and now Job was compelled to confess, “Well now, I have talked about what I don’t understand—awesome things beyond me that I don’t know” [JOB 42:3 ISV]. Think about what God said! The Living God has just said that attempting to explain God, endeavouring to explain what God was doing, when Job didn’t actually understand God, was tantamount to concealing God from those who heard Job speak.
When we attempt to explain God without actually understanding God, we conceal the Holy One. When an individual is passing through deep waters and the flames are threatening to consume that individual, if we attempt to instruct them about God’s purpose in permitting the trial, we are actually masking God. We need to be cautious that we don’t pretend to know why anyone is experiencing trials.
Perhaps if God is disciplining His child, and the church knows that saint is under discipline, we might be able to speak with some authority. However, when a fellow believer cries out in dismay, “Why is God doing this?” we need to be humble enough to admit that we know neither the source of the trial nor the reason for the particular trial. We are not able to say that it is Satan who is attacking the saint or whether there is another reason for the pain the individual is undergoing.
Earlier, Job had testified,
“[God] snatches away; who can turn him back?
Who will say to him, ‘What are you doing?’”
[JOB 9:12]
Though we don’t particularly enjoy having our words thrown back into our face, upon hearing this, some among us might be tempted to comment—especially after reading the words of our text, “Pretty words, Job. But do you understand what you are saying?” Confronted by the presence of the Living God, the persecuted saint is compelled to admit that he spoke without actually understanding God’s might and power.
Like many of us, the battered saint recognised that God is mighty without having ever fully experienced that divine might. Let me ask whether you have ever experienced God’s power. I know that you who are redeemed have experienced God’s saving power; but can you say that you have witnessed Him flex His mighty arm to deliver you? Have you witnessed God intervene in your life to give you food when there was no ability to provide for your family? Have you received mercy when you knew you deserved judgement? Have you faced certain disaster and then experienced God’s deliverance? Can you testify to His power, speaking from first-hand knowledge?
Job was convinced of the theological truth of God’s sovereignty without ever having experienced the reality of that truth. Think about that! Have you ever actually seen God work in power? Or if you can recall a time that He revealed His mighty arm, it was so long ago that the memory has faded? It would be fascinating for the members of the assembly to tell of the most powerful demonstration of divine power they ever witnessed. It would be more instructive still for each member to speak of God’s might revealed through their own life!
Have you ever seen God heal in direct response to prayer? I’m not speaking of fakirs who chant weird incantations and then claim that a person is healed despite every evidence to the contrary. Neither am I speaking of someone who claims that their sniffles were cured or that their hangnail was removed. I’m asking if you have witnessed someone rise from their sick bed in definite answer to prayer! I have witnessed God respond to definite prayer—and He did so quickly!
Have you ever seen God miraculously provide food when there was no possibility of food for that day? I could tell you of instances when our family had no food for the coming day, and food was strangely supplied from unexpected sources. I could speak of times when there was no money to pay necessary expenses, and moneys came in the post from people whom we only barely knew or, in some instances, from someone whom we didn’t know at all. The crisis was averted because God, in mercy, touched the heart of someone. Isn’t it true that our Lord has taught us, “Your Father knows what you need before you ask him” [MATTHEW 6:8].
Have you ever experienced God revealing what someone was thinking so that you were able to reveal the secrets of the heart? Or have you ever experienced God exposing the evil design of another so that you avoided being injured or hindered in the work to which He has called you? Have you ever shared in a worship service when the secrets of an outsider’s heart was disclosed, and because God acted in power that outsider confessed that God was truly present? Did the Apostle speak the truth when he wrote, “If all prophesy, and an unbeliever or outsider enters, he is convicted by all, he is called to account by all, the secrets of his heart are disclosed, and so, falling on his face, he will worship God and declare that God is really among you” [1 CORINTHIANS 14:24-25].
Is the demonstration of power that you would testify to something that happened so long ago that it is difficult to remember the details? Or is the memory vivid, sharp, clear in your mind? Has God been working in your life in recent days? Is God working in power through your life today? Is He demonstrating His sovereign power in your service before Him today? Is He real to you because He is presently working in your life?
What I’m driving at is whether the God you serve is a present ruler over your life? Does He direct your life? Do the choices you make and the decisions that mark your daily walk reveal His rule over your life. Are you sensitive to the direction of the Spirit of God who lives within the life of each believer? As you pass through the day, is it your experience that “Your ears [] hear a word behind you, saying, ‘This is the way, walk in it,’ when you turn to the right or when you turn to the left” [ISAIAH 30:21]. Or do you still conduct your life according to the desires of your own heart? Is God sovereign in your life? Does His will dictate how you live your life?
If the Living God is merely a theory for your life, then you need to hear the cautionary words written by the Court Prophet, Isaiah. The man of God warns,
“Woe to him who strives with him who formed him,
a pot among earthen pots!
Does the clay say to him who forms it, ‘What are you making?’
or ‘Your work has no handles?’
Woe to him who says to a father, ‘What are you begetting?’
or to a woman, ‘With what are you in labor?’”
[ISAIAH 45:9-10]
Perhaps you recall the cautionary statement the Apostle made when he was reminding readers of God’s sovereignty. “Who are you, O man, to answer back to God? Will what is molded say to its molder, ‘Why have you made me like this?’ Has the potter no right over the clay, to make out of the same lump one vessel for honorable use and another for dishonorable use? What if God, desiring to show his wrath and to make known his power, has endured with much patience vessels of wrath prepared for destruction, in order to make known the riches of his glory for vessels of mercy, which he has prepared beforehand for glory” [ROMANS 9:20-23].
I’m focusing on the fact that God is sovereign. Though this does obviously include the fact that He calls us to salvation, that is not the focus of my contention at this moment. I’m focused on a more immediate aspect of God’s sovereignty in day-to-day life. Does it matter whether God has a will for our walk.
We tend to make the will of the Lord something complex, almost indiscernible. However, the will of God is not difficult. We know that the will of God is for His people to be holy. Paul writes, “This is the will of God, your sanctification: that you abstain from sexual immorality; that each one of you know how to control his own body in holiness and honor, not in the passion of lust like the Gentiles who do not know God; that no one transgress and wrong his brother in this matter, because the Lord is an avenger in all these things, as we told you beforehand and solemnly warned you. For God has not called us for impurity, but in holiness” [1 THESSALONIANS 4:3-7].
We know that God wills that we be thankful in all situations. We read in Scripture, “Give thanks in all circumstances; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you” [1 THESSALONIANS 5:18].
We know that the will of the Lord is to do good so that we silence foolish people. Peter has instructed us, “For this is the will of God, that by doing good you should put to silence the ignorance of foolish people. Live as people who are free, not using your freedom as a cover-up for evil, but living as servants of God” [1 PETER 2:15-16].
It is the will of God that believers commit themselves to those whom God has appointed to oversee the affairs of the congregation, as seen when Paul commended the Macedonian Christians. The Apostle testified, “[The Macedonian Christians] gave according to their means, as I can testify, and beyond their means, of their own accord, begging us earnestly for the favor of taking part in the relief of the saints—and this, not as we expected, but they gave themselves first to the Lord and then by the will of God to us” [2 CORINTHIANS 8:3-5]. Focus on that final assertion—they gave themselves “by the will of God to [the missionaries].”
These are instances of specific revelations of the will of God. A holy life! Thanksgiving! Living a good life! Committed to those exercising oversight! These specific expectations flow from a sovereign God who claims the right to reign over the life of that one who is called by the Name of the Son of God. Christians are to live life “for the will of God” [see 1 PETER 4:2]. My personal desires are not to rule my life—Christ is ruler over my life! I urge each follower of the Christ to take seriously the admonition, “I appeal to you therefore, brothers, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship. Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect” [ROMANS 12:1-2].
Although we followers of Christ are redeemed, we are nevertheless fallen. Thus, we often distort the will of the Lord. We imagine that God would never permit us to suffer. However, we need to know that the will of God may lead us into paths strewn with thorns. It is quite possible that we shall suffer. We are taught, “Who is there to harm you if you are zealous for what is good? But even if you should suffer for righteousness’ sake, you will be blessed. Have no fear of them, nor be troubled, but in your hearts honor Christ the Lord as holy, always being prepared to make a defense to anyone who asks you for a reason for the hope that is in you; yet do it with gentleness and respect, having a good conscience, so that, when you are slandered, those who revile your good behavior in Christ may be put to shame. For it is better to suffer for doing good, if that should be God’s will, than for doing evil.
“For Christ also suffered once for sins, the righteous for the unrighteous, that he might bring us to God, being put to death in the flesh but made alive in the spirit, in which he went and proclaimed to the spirits in prison, because they formerly did not obey, when God’s patience waited in the days of Noah, while the ark was being prepared, in which a few, that is, eight persons, were brought safely through water. Baptism, which corresponds to this, now saves you, not as a removal of dirt from the body but as an appeal to God for a good conscience, through the resurrection of Jesus Christ, who has gone into heaven and is at the right hand of God, with angels, authorities, and powers having been subjected to him” [1 PETER 3:13-22].
What is written certainly implies that we who follow the Christ are likely to be slandered. The Spirit of Christ, speaking through Peter, cautions that it may well be the will of God that we shall suffer because we believe the Saviour. When we identified with Christ in baptism, we became marked by the world as objects of the wrath of wicked people. However, it is essential that we see that our God is always with us. He is at work even when we are slandered, even when we suffer, ensuring that He will bring glory to His Name. This is the reason we have a God who is sovereign. He will not permit anything to come into our life that will move us from His love.
We need the encouragement of this Great God when He promises, “We know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose. For those whom he foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son, in order that he might be the firstborn among many brothers. And those whom he predestined he also called, and those whom he called he also justified, and those whom he justified he also glorified.
“What then shall we say to these things? If God is for us, who can be against us? He who did not spare his own Son but gave him up for us all, how will he not also with him graciously give us all things? Who shall bring any charge against God’s elect? It is God who justifies. Who is to condemn? Christ Jesus is the one who died—more than that, who was raised—who is at the right hand of God, who indeed is interceding for us. Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or danger, or sword? As it is written,
‘For your sake we are being killed all the day long;
we are regarded as sheep to be slaughtered.’
“No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. For I am sure that neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers, nor height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord” [ROMANS 8:28-39].
GOD IS BIG ENOUGH TO HEAR US WHEN WE CRY — Again, Job confessed,
“I had heard of you by the hearing of the ear,
but now my eye sees you;
therefore I despise myself,
and repent in dust and ashes.”
[JOB 42:5-6]
Will we suffer because of the Faith? It is possible, some might even say it is probable, that the follower of Christ will experience opposition, and that opposition may entail suffering. We need to hear that God is pledged on His sacred honour to always be with His child whatever the situation. We have great confidence when our God promises, “I will never leave you nor forsake you” [HEBREWS 13:5b].
I have always found the promise of the LORD delivered through Isaiah to serve as a rich comfort in my own puny trials. Perhaps these words have comforted you at times. The Lord GOD promised,
“Fear not, for I have redeemed you;
I have called you by name, you are mine.
When you pass through the waters, I will be with you;
and through the rivers, they shall not overwhelm you;
when you walk through fire you shall not be burned,
and the flame shall not consume you.”
[ISAIAH 43:1b-2]
Job had certainly cried plenty of tears. Grief was his constant companion once the fiery blasts launched by the wicked one began to scorch his life. Everything he owned, and all he held dear, was destroyed. There should be no surprise since Satan is a destroyer—he assuredly sought to destroy Job. You’ve heard me say on other occasions that the devil wants to kill you. That this is the case becomes evident from Jesus’ own words when he said, “The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy” [JOHN 10:10a]. I’m so glad that Jesus didn’t finish that warning with those dark words. You know that he continued by saying, “I came that they may have life and have it abundantly. I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep” [JOHN 10:10b-11].
Perhaps you have been focused on Job’s humility as the LORD reveals Himself. You would not be wrong to note that He was humbled in the presence of the Lord GOD. Any mere mortal will be humble when God unveils His glory. Should God reveal Himself in all His glory in this place, I have no doubt that each of us would fall down, crying out as did Peter, “Depart from me, for I am a sinful man, O Lord” [LUKE 5:8b]. However, as we look at the text, noting Job’s response to God’s revelation of Himself, what I’m asking you to see is that God responded to the cry of His child.
Yes, Job was humbled, driven to the ground, but it was because God responded to His child’s pain. Here is the wonderful truth we must not miss—the Lord responds to the grief of His child. The Master stands with His servant in every difficult situation, and He does not desert His child when the way grows dark and the path is strewn with obstacles.
A Methodist minister in the Philadelphia Conference was passing through a period of severe testing in his life. It appears that he was suffering physically; and the suffering he experienced had led him into the slough of despair, into despondency. Reverend Graeff was led him to question God. He turned to the Scriptures for solace and strength. One passage in particular became especially meaningful to him during this particular struggle. Peter encourages Christians, counselling them with these comforting words, “Casting all your care upon him; for he careth for you” [1 PETER 5:7 KJV].
Reading Peter’s words, the answer to his doubt came back, “I know my Saviour cares!” [2] The hymn Frank Graeff wrote has comforted saints since it was first penned almost one hundred twenty years ago.
Does Jesus care when my heart is pained too deeply for mirth and song,
as the burdens press, and the cares distress, and the way grows weary and long?
Does Jesus care when my way is dark with a nameless dread and fear?
As the daylight fades into deep night shades, does He care enough to be near?
Does Jesus care when I’ve tried and failed to resist some temptation strong,
when for my deep grief I find no relief, tho’ my tears flow all the night long?
Does Jesus care when I’ve said goodbye to the dearest on earth to me,
and my sad heart aches till it nearly breaks—Is it aught to Him? Does He see?
Chorus: O yes, He cares—I know He cares! His heart is touched with my grief; when the days are weary, the long nights dreary, I know my Savior cares. [3]
Each child of the Living God can be assured that because the Lord is sovereign, He knows His child. My Father knows what I face; He knows each trial before it comes. In fact, we can be assured that our Father has permitted only that which will result in His glory and what is good to come into the life of each of His children. We struggle because the opposition raised against us appears to be so great, but we are comforted to know that we serve a God who is too good to needlessly hurt us, and too wise to make a mistake. Job testified,
“Because he knows the road on which I travel,
when he had tested me, I’ll come out like gold.”
[JOB 23:10 ISV]
It is easy to confuse God’s permission for His child to pass through trials with punishment. If God disciplines His child, it is for the good of that child. Moreover, the child won’t have to guess what is happening, it will be evident that discipline is being administered. What is comforting is the knowledge that God is big enough to know what you are passing through. God is big enough to be in control of the situation, infusing your mind with divine wisdom, supplying you with the required strength, and equipping you to honour Him whatever the challenge you may face. God is big enough to lift you over every obstacle and big enough to ensure that you benefit from every battle. Is it easy? Not in the least! But it is necessary and beneficial.
I am not saying that you will not shed tears, but I am saying that God counts every tear. As recounted by the Psalmist, the child of God will say,
“You have kept count of my tossings;
put my tears in your bottle.
Are they not in your book?
Then my enemies will turn back
in the day when I call.
This I know, that God is for me.
In God, whose word I praise,
in the LORD, whose word I praise,
in God I trust; I shall not be afraid.
What can man do to me?”
[PSALM 56:8-11]
“This I know, that God is for me.” That is the shout of exultation; that is the shout of victory when you glorify God despite the trials you faced and which you overcame.
The question that is before each follower of the Christ who hears the message is, How big is your God? I know we serve a Great God, the God who holds all power and Who seeks my good. Look at Job, and rejoice in the greatness of our God. Amen.
[1] Unless otherwise indicated, all Scripture quotations are from The Holy Bible: English Standard Version. Wheaton: Standard Bible Society, 2016. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
[2] Kenneth W. Osbeck, Amazing Grace: 366 Inspiring Hymn Stories for Daily Devotions (Kregel Publications, Grand Rapids, MI 1996) 208
[3] Frank Graeff, “Does Jesus Care?” 1901
