Finding God's Comfort # 6

Finding God's Comfort # 6

No artist ever paints on his canvas - all the beauty of his ideal. No great singer ever expresses all the music that burns within him as he sings. No eloquent orator ever utters all that he feels, as he pleads for truth or for justice.

So in all our life - we do only a little of what we strive to do. We set out in the morning with purposes of usefulness, of true living, of gentle-heartedness, of patience, of victoriousness; but in the evenings we find only little fragments of these good intentions actually wrought out. Much of our living is but faded blossoms, which never grow into ripe fruit.

But it is not so with God. No purpose of His can be thwarted. His thoughts all take form. He speaks - and it is done. His intentions are all carried out. No power can withstand Him or thwart His will. He does all his good pleasure. There is great comfort in this truth for us.

It was in this thought, that Job found peace after his long, sore trial. All things were in God's hands, and nothing could hinder His designs of love. There is comfort here for us. Our God is infinitely strong. He can do anything He wills to do. No human power can thwart any purpose of God's. In all earthly confusions, strifes, troubles, sorrows - His hand moves, bringing good out of evil, gain out of loss, for those who trust in Him. We need never be afraid to leave our life absolutely in God's keeping - for He is our Father and nothing can thwart His love for us!

The thought of God's majesty leads Job to confession: "Therefore have I uttered that which I understood not." That is the trouble with most of us. We talk about things - of which we know nothing. We chatter about God and God's ways - as if He were a next door neighbor, just like ourselves, whose thoughts and plans and feelings and motives - we understand from our own. We seem to forget that He is infinitely greater than we are, that His ways are astonishing, past finding out. Zephar, in one of his speeches to Job, put it thus: "Can you fathom the mysteries of God? Can you probe the limits of the Almighty? They are higher than the heavens - what can you do? They are deeper than the depths of the grave - what can you know?" (Job 11:7-8).

Job himself, speaking of God's works in nature and in providence, adds, "These are but the fringes of His ways, merely a whisper of His power. Who can understand the thunder of His power?" (Job 26:14).

We ought to learn the lesson. God is not a man - not one of ourselves. If we could understand Him - He would not be God. His greatness puts Him beyond our comprehension. We cannot hope to know the reasons for His acts. Some of His ways with us - are strange ways. We are perplexed. We say, "God cannot love me - or He would not do these things, send these sorrows!" As if we could know why He does these inscrutable things! We ought to learn to trust God even in the deepest mysteries, not expecting to know - but sure of His love and goodness, even when it is darkest and when His face is veiled in most impenetrable mists. We ought to be silent unto God - even when we cannot understand. That is the truest faith!

Job was not satisfied with anything short of most humble confession: "My ears had heard of you - but now my eyes have seen You! Therefore I despise myself and repent in dust and ashes!" (Job 42:5-6). That is always the way. Seeing God, humbles us. When we are far from God - we see only dim revealings of Him, and have no true conception of His glory and holiness. The stars we see in the heavens are really vast suns, like our own - and much larger and brighter. But to our eyes they appear as only little points of light, because of their immense distance from us. Yet if we could fly away through space and draw near to them, they would appear more and more brilliant, until, at length, their radiance would dazzle and blind us.

So it is, that men are not impressed with the greatness and the majesty of God - while they are far from Him. But as they come near to Him - He is revealed to them in glory and grandeur, and this revelation shows them their own littleness, their own sinfulness. The more we know of God - the less do we think of ourselves. When Isaiah saw the vision of God in the temple, he cried, "Woe is me for I am undone! because I am a man of unclean lips - for my eyes have seen the King, the Lord Almighty!"

Once when Jesus had wrought a miracle - filling the nets of the disciple-fishermen; Peter fell down on his knees and said, "Depart from me - for I am a sinful man, O Lord!" The work of power had given Peter a glimpse of the glory - the deity of Christ - and the revealing had shown the disciple such a sight of  His own unworthiness that could not endure the holy presence. Yet, the humbling experience is most wholesome. It is only as we learn our own true condition - that we grow in spiritual life. Seeing Christ - transforms us into His own likeness - by showing us our sins, and leading us to depart from them - and by showing us His blessed beauty, and drawing us toward it.

~J. R. Miller~

(continued with # 7)