Understanding a Great God !

“You alone are the LORD. You made the heavens, even the highest heavens, and all their starry host, the earth and all that is on it, the seas and all that is in them. You give life to everything, and the multitudes of heaven worship you.” (Nehemiah 9:6)

This may come as news to you, and if so, I am sorry that it has taken this long for someone to tell you, but you are not the center of the universe. Not only is the universe not about you, but neither is the Bible. People are not the point of the Bible, God is.

This is the God to whom we pray. He is God, from everlasting to everlasting. (See Psalm 92:2) He is not simply a tribal deity, unreliable and weak. He does not have a power that goes only so far. He is not controlled by anyone or anything. Nor does He depend on anyone or anything.

The biblical worldview places all reality in two distinct categories: The Creator and his creation. The Creator is fundamentally and eternally happy in Himself, and He is dependent upon nothing. Everything originates from God. Nothing in this universe exists independent of God’s active, sustaining will. God didn’t create us and then step back to leave us to do our own thing. He holds together and maintains the universe merely by the power of His hand. Nothing—and I mean absolutely nothing—has existential autonomy.

Think about this for a moment. We came into existence by God’s providence as a fertilized egg due to the combined efforts of a father and mother we did not choose, under the parental decisions we did not make, in a home we did not build, in a country we did not choose, on a planet we do not keep spinning around a sun that we do not keep burning, in a universe we could never dream up.  This means that all the arrogance of our age about choosing our destiny is absolute foolishness. It’s all a delusion. We are not gods. We are part of the fabric of reality that was all spoken into existence by God—He is the speaker, we are His words.

And praise God for that! Because His absolute self-existence means that His love for us is absolutely free. We could never twist His arm into being a, “forgiving God, gracious and compassionate, slow to anger and abounding in love.” (Nehemiah 9:17) We could never convince Him to become the kind of God who is righteous and, “…who keeps his covenant of love…” (Nehemiah 9:32)  Our confession of sin and need doesn’t make Him into that kind of God.  We have a reason to confess and seek after Him in the first place because He is that kind of God.

We would never know about God if He had not told us about Himself in His Word.  In Nehemiah 9, the Levites are praying the very words of God back to God, and they could do so flawlessly because of how deeply His word had taken root in their hearts. This is important for us to remember. 

What makes us think we are entitled to make ourselves the center of the universe? Did we create ourselves? Do we own ourselves? Even more importantly, we are not entitled to a wrong concept of God. He has told us who he is; we’re left simply to submit our opinions and ways of thinking to His authoritative Word.

The billions of stars and innumerable creatures of the immense seas all cry out that our Creator is LORD.  God will receive the worship of the angels and all the heavenly beings. What difference does it make if we praise him? To the universe it doesn't matter. But to us it matters greatly! It matters even more to the LORD, who longs to be our Father and wants to bring us into relationship with himself. So, with an understanding of this great God, and with biblically informed prayers that are covered with the cleansing and atoning blood of Jesus, may we pray in power and with confidence.

“He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn over all creation. For by him all things were created: things in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or powers or rulers or authorities; all things were created by him and for him. He is before all things, and in him all things hold together.” (Colossians 1:15-17)

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