By Carla Guachalla
Being aware of how small we are and how great the Lord is, should lead us to reflect on the way we are living.
Do we really seek to be subject to God’s will? Do we seek his instruction and teaching? He was the creator of absolutely everything and we are nobody to tell the Lord what and how to do things. Compared to the greatness and omnipotence of God, we have no right to say “I declare” or “I decree” as if our words had power in themselves. We do not have the power to say any of that, because if the Lord’s will is contrary to ours, we must accept it with gratitude.
Oh, the depth of the riches and wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable are his judgments and how inscrutable his ways! “For who has known the mind of the Lord, or who has been his counselor?”
Romans 11:33-34, ESV
Just knowing a little bit of what God knows, all His plans, everything He sees, and His very greatness, makes us realize how small and insignificant we are, and how incapable we are of giving Him counsel. “The foolishness of God is wiser than men, and the weak of God is stronger than men.” (1 Corinthians 1:25)
Who are you or who am I to say to the Lord, “what are you doing?” The only thing we deserve from the Lord is his wrath. But thanks be to Him that despite this he gives us his grace and mercy every day.
How is it possible that such a great being, a being that transcends time and space, has decided to show mercy and grace to creatures that are worth absolutely nothing by themselves? “all the inhabitants of the earth are accounted as nothing” (Daniel 4:35) Have we fully understood God’s grace?
It is incredible how some dare to say: “God needs you” when preaching the gospel. Someone who has understood that the salvation that God gives us is by pure grace has nothing left but to be scandalized by such a statement. That God needs me!? Does the being who created me need me? Does the being that has created everything around me, even the most amazing and incredible things, need ME? God does not need anyone to do what he does, God does not need someone to give him counsel, God subsists in himself, and he would not be God if it were not that way. And it is up to us to submit to his will, whether it goes according to ours or is full of trials.
“Shall we receive good from God, and shall we not receive evil?” (Job 2:10) We must submit to his will just as Job showed us that we must. “The Lord gave, and the Lord has taken away; blessed be the name of the Lord.” (Job 1:21), it is the Lord who has control over the blessings and losses in our lives and we can trust and rest in him. Are we faithful to him despite the circumstances? What are we looking for every day? We may go through difficult things, but what is it that keeps us standing?
For a Christian, knowing that God is in absolute control of any situation is the greatest comfort. Knowing that “for those who love God all things work together for good” (Romans 8:28) leads us to trust in God’s sovereignty and say “amen” to all that the Lord has provided for us.
God’s plans and times are perfect and nothing we desire will be better than what He has prepared for us. We can present our requests to God, and if He wishes, things will be given that way, and if He does not want it that way, we will submit to His will, and we will rest in Him. God himself has provided us with His word to give us his wisdom and thus be able to cope with any situation. “All Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness, that the man of God[a] may be complete, equipped for every good work.” (2 Timothy 3:16-17) The Lord is the one who guides us at every step, we depend entirely on him.
For those who are not Christians: Do not approach the Lord to ask him to return what has been taken from you, when you did not even approach Him to thank for each of those things. It’s easy to forget God when everything is going well, is it not? You neither seek him, nor do you seek to do his will, or you seek to live the way God commands you in his Word. But the moment something goes wrong you dare to turn to God to ask “why did you do this to me?” Isn’t this incoherent?
You are not worthy of even approaching Him, and still you will approach God to reclaim things? Do you think this will please him or that he owes you an answer? He does not owe you anything and if you have something good it is by pure grace. The only thing you are deserving of is the wrath of God.
We are nothing and we must be aware of that, God is sovereign and is in control of every situation… But how do we react to this truth? With gratitude or with indifference? How do we deal with the things the Lord has put in our path? If there is something that should always be present, it is joy and gratitude. Can we say that we are truly joyful in Christ?
