Reveling in the Greatness of my God

Isaiah 41:10, 13-14 - “Fear thou not; for I am with thee: be not dismayed; for I am thy God: I will strengthen thee; yea, I will help thee; yea, I will uphold thee with the right hand of my righteousness. For I the LORD thy God will hold thy right hand, saying unto thee, Fear not; I will help thee. Fear not, thou worm Jacob,(I love how he puts us in our proper place ;) and ye men of Israel; I will help thee, saith the LORD, and thy redeemer, the Holy One of Israel.” Did you notice how many times it mentions me doing something (other than telling me not to fear)? Not once does it say that Chrystal will do this or Chrystal will do that. All throughout these verses God says “I” will or ”I” am….God is the ONLY One who I can safely place my trust in. Not my friends, not my family and not even in myself. God has promised to uphold and strengthen me and it doesn’t depend one little bit on who I know or on the things that I do!

In the book of Nehemiah the people are reminded of all the things that God did for them. God saw their afflictions, He he heard their cry at the Red Sea, He showed signs to Pharoah, He divided the sea before the people, He threw their persecutors into the deeps of the waters, He led them by a cloudy pillar by day and a pillar of fire by night, He gave the ten commamndmens, He gave them bread when they were hungry and water when they were thirsty, and finally He kept His promise about giving them the land. (Ch. 9) And yet, you won't believe what the people did... They made a molten calf and verse 18 says that they actually said "This is thy god that brought thee up out of Egypt!" Are you kidding me?!?! If that had been me and they had tried to give the credit to a calf, that they themselves had made, after all I had done for them, they'd have been smoked! Yet Vrs. 19 shows Gods response. "Yet Thou in Thy manifold mercies forsookest them not in the wilderness: the pillar of the cloud departed not from them by day, to lead them in the way; neither the pillar of fire by night, to show the light, and the way wherein they should go." God's mercy is absolutely mind-boggling. God is faithful to us even we aren't faithful to Him. What we do does not affect what God does! Praise the Lord! I would pretty much be beat into pulp by now if that weren't the case! ;)

However, I have often wondered why God continues to uphold and sustain me, when He knows that I will continue to fail Him? The answer comes in Nehemiah 6:16- "And it came to pass, that when all our enemies heard thereof, and all the heathen that were about us saw these things, they were much cast down in their own eyes; (They suddenly didn't see themselved as quite so strong and mighty)for they perceived that this work was wrought of our God!" and Isaiah 41:20 also gives us the answer...“That they may see, and know, and consider, and understand together, that the hand of the LORD hath done this, and the Holy One of Israel hath created it.” God does it to bring glory to Himself. Because we know, and are continually shown, that we as humans have no strength to win spiritual battles, to save someone from hell, to have the peace we need when going through a rough time, etc., the only thing that we can conclude is that it is all God! So many times we like to think that we had something to do with winning a spiritual battle or bringing a soul to Christ etc., when in reality it was all God; demonstrating His greatness to us, as He allowed us to be a part of a very special plan. When we try to take the credit for what He has done, we are defeating the very purpose for which God has created us; to bring ALL the Glory to Him!

We serve an incredible God!
Chrystal

Great things He hath taught us, great things He hath done
And great our rejoicing through Jesus the Son
But purer and higher and greater will be
Our wonder, our worship, when Jesus we see!