What do you think about when you hear the word Great? Here are some synonyms that come to mind: Tremendous, enormous, huge, fantastic, colossal, and excessive. I am sure you can add a few more. Yet, when we talk about God as being Great, even these words just don’t say it all. It is easier to describe the great things He does. In Acts 4:33 it says: “And with great power the apostles were giving their testimony to the resurrection of the Lord Jesus, and great grace was upon them all.” Our great God was doing great miracles through the apostles and there was great grace on all the people. Now let’s add those synonyms onto power and grace.
By seeing God’s greatness in how He works in and through our lives, we are seeing the invisible made visible. It is the supernatural invading the natural. These great acts of God are beyond the ability of man, for this reason they are a manifestation of grace. Grace is never earned or deserved. Grace is a gift. Paul wrote to the Ephesians that we can never take credit for what God does, whether it be what He does for us or through us. Our boasting can only be in God. He is to receive all the praise and all the glory. Grace is God giving. Faith is man receiving. Great faith is when we receive great grace, or in other words, when we see God as able to do far beyond what we can imagine possible for us to do.
How great is God to you? It is not just something we say: “God is Great!” Even the Muslims do that in their declaration: “Allahu akbar”. Any religious zealot can call out those words. God’s greatness must go beyond the words we say. It is to be reflected in our relationship with Him. How great is God in your dependence on Him? Are you anxious about your life; where you will live, what you will eat or the job you have? This kind of worrying only reveals that God is not great to you. Fear is a reality check showing that we are trusting in our own abilities and strengths and not in God.
How great is God in the prayers you pray? Do you pray for the minimum or just to get by? Is that your idea of the greatness of God? What you really believe about His greatness is revealed in the size of your requests. I heard a story about a king that gave three of his subjects the opportunity to ask anything of himself. The first one asked for one of the king’s rings. The second asked for the king’s horse. The third asked for half of his kingdom. The king smiled and granted the third servant’s request and said that such a request honored him, whereas the first two did not. We don’t honor God by asking the minimum, as if He had only a little to go around to so many. Our Great God gives abundantly according to His riches.
James writes that we ask and do not receive because we ask wrongly. (James 4:3) He is saying that our “wrong” prayers are missing the mark. They are unhealthy because they are all about our needs and desires. When we do this, we bring God down to the size of our circumstances. Sure, we have needs, but God is so much greater than our needs. So, don’t ask to be able to survive one more day, to endure one more trial, or to pay one more bill. God is not so small. Rather pray that you can be a difference maker, that you can show forth the greatness of God in everything you put your hand to. Pray you would prosper as your soul prospers and that God would be glorified in and through your life. Ask BIG because God is Great.
Scriptures to meditate on:
Acts 4:33; James 4:3, 8; Mark 11:22-24; Ephesians 2:8-9; 3 John 2