Monday, April 21, 2008

Knowing God by J. I. Packer - Reflection chapter 8

Chapter 8 has been talking about the majesty of God.

He ends the chapter with 3 thoughts that have made me think... so I share with you.

1. Isaiah 40:25 "To whom will you compare me?
Or who is my equal?" says the Holy One.

This question rebukes wrong thoughts about God.

"Your thoughts of God are too human," said Luther to Erasmus...
We need to learn to acknowledge the full majesty of our incomparable God and Savior.

2. Isaiah 40:
27 Why do you say, O Jacob,
and complain, O Israel,
"My way is hidden from the LORD;
my cause is disregarded by my God"?

This question rebukes wrong thoughts about ourselves. God has not abandoned us any more than he abandoned Job. He never abandons anyone on whom he has set his love; nor does Christ ever lose track of his sheep. If you have been resigning yourself to the thought that God has left you high and dry, seek grace to be ashamed of yourself. Such unbelieving pessimism deeply dishonors our great God and Savior.

3. Isaiah 40:28 Do you not know?
Have you not heard?
The LORD is the everlasting God,
the Creator of the ends of the earth.
He will not grow tired or weary,
and his understanding no one can fathom.

This question rebukes our slowness to believe in God's majesty.

The rebuke is well deserved by many of us. How slow we are to believe in God as God, sovereign, all-seeing and almighty! How little we make of the majesty of our Lord and Savior Christ! The need for us is to "wait upon the Lord" in meditations on his majesty, till we find our strength renewed through the writing of these things upon our hearts.

I think I get stuck with question one. I get stuck limiting my understanding of who God is and what God is capable of to what I am capable of and limited to. I keep wanting to push my understanding. Like when I read and study about the stars and see how "high the heavens are" I think to myself. God breathed this all into existence. And with the universe so big that he would even acknowlegde the existance of this tiny little speck of matter in this big universe is amazing... Let alone the thought of His acknowledging me. But I don't think I live acknowledging daily the power and majesty of God in my life.

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