God is So Great

	"For this reason," Paul expresses in Ephesians 3:14-21, "I bow my knees before the Father, from whom every family in heaven and on earth derives its name, that He would grant you, according to the riches of His glory, to be strengthened with power through His Spirit in the inner man; so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith; {and} that you, being rooted and grounded in love, may be able to comprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and length and height and depth, and to know the love of Christ which surpasses knowledge, that you may be filled up to all the fulness of God.  Now to Him who is able to do exceeding abundantly beyond all that we ask or think, according to the power that works within us, to Him {be} the glory in the church and in Christ Jesus to all generations forever and ever. Amen."
	We must all say, "Amen" to these thoughts of the apostle Paul.  God is so great!  God is so great that nothing is too difficult for Him.
	As we read in the book of Genesis, God promises that Abraham and Sarah will have a son, even though both are well beyond child-bearing age.  Sarah laughs when she hears the promise.  Perhaps she feels this is too difficult a task for God.
	"Is anything too difficult for the Lord?" the Lord asks Abraham in Genesis 18:14.  "At the appointed time I will return to you, at this time next year, and Sarah shall have a son."
	No, it is not too difficult for God to give a son to Abraham and Sarah.
	As the Israelites are marching from Egypt to Canaan, they complain about the food.  God promises that for a month all will have so much meat that it will be running out of their noses.  Moses reminds God that there are hundreds of thousands of people.
	"Is the Lord's power limited?" God responds in Numbers 11:23. "Now you shall see whether My word will come true for you or not."
	As the Israelites pass through the countryside, a king tries to hire a man named Balaam to curse them.
	"How shall I curse, whom God has not cursed?" Balaam recognizes in Numbers 23:8.  "And how can I denounce, whom the Lord has not denounced?"
	The king becomes angry after failed attempts at cursing the Israelites.
	"Did I not tell you," Balaam replies in Numbers 23:26, "'Whatever the Lord speaks, that I must do'?"
	God is so great!  Nothing is too difficult for Him.
	"Ah Lord God!" Jeremiah 32:17 exclaims.  "Behold, Thou hast made the heavens and the earth by Thy great power and by Thine outstretched arm! Nothing is too difficult for Thee,"
	"Behold, I am the Lord," God agrees in verse 27, "the God of all flesh; is anything too difficult for Me?" 
	God is so great!  Nothing is too difficult for Him.  And just how great is He?
	"For while I was passing through and examining the objects of your worship," Paul tells the people of Athens in Acts 17:23-31, "I also found an altar with this inscription, 'TO AN UNKNOWN GOD.' What therefore you worship in ignorance, this I proclaim to you.  The God who made the world and all things in it, since He is Lord of heaven and earth, does not dwell in temples made with hands; neither is He served by human hands, as though He needed anything, since He Himself gives to all life and breath and all things; and He made from one, every nation of mankind to live on all the face of the earth, having determined {their} appointed times, and the boundaries of their habitation, that they should seek God, if perhaps they might grope for Him and find Him, though He is not far from each one of us; for in Him we live and move and exist, as even some of your own poets have said, 'For we also are His offspring.'  Being then the offspring of God, we ought not to think that the Divine Nature is like gold or silver or stone, an image formed by the art and thought of man.  Therefore having overlooked the times of ignorance, God is now declaring to men that all everywhere should repent, because He has fixed a day in which He will judge the world in righteousness through a Man whom He has appointed, having furnished proof to all men by raising Him from the dead."
	How great is God?  As verse 24 points out, He created the world and all that is in it.
	"The God who made the world and all things in it," this verse states, "since He is Lord of heaven and earth, does not dwell in temples made with hands."
	How great is God?  As verse 26 says, He made all people and all nations.
	"And He made from one," this verse affirms, "every nation of mankind to live on all the face of the earth, having determined {their} appointed times, and the boundaries of their habitation."
	God is great.  He created the world and all that is in it.  He made all people and all nations.
	In addition, He is so great that He attested to Jesus through miracles and wonders.
	"Men of Israel," Peter proclaims in Acts 2:22, "listen to these words: Jesus the Nazarene, a man attested to you by God with miracles and wonders and signs which God performed through Him in your midst, just as you yourselves know--." 
	God is so great that He attests to Jesus through miracles and wonders.  He is even able to provide the greatest evidence of the nature of Jesus by raising Him from the dead. 
	"Because He has fixed a day," we have seen in Acts 17:31, "in which He will judge the world in righteousness through a Man whom He has appointed, having furnished proof to all men by raising Him from the dead." 
	God is so great.  Nothing is too difficult for Him.  He can give children to the barren and food to the hungry.  No one curses His people without His approval.  He made the world and all that is in it.  He made all people and all nations.  He attested to the nature of Jesus through wonders and miracles, and by raising Him from the dead.  God is so great.

	God is so great.  We have seen the evidence that nothing is too difficult for Him.  What, then, does this mean for us?  What can He do for us?
	"But if God so arrays the grass of the field," Jesus observes in Matthew 6:30, "which is {alive} today and tomorrow is thrown into the furnace, {will He} not much more {do so for} you, O men of little faith?"
	What can God do for us?  He can supply our daily needs.
	"But if any of you lacks wisdom," James 1:5 offers, "let him ask of God, who gives to all men generously and without reproach, and it will be given to him."
	What can God do for us?  He can provide wisdom.
	"And God is able to make all grace abound to you," 2 Corinthians 9:8 promises, "that always having all sufficiency in everything, you may have an abundance for every good deed."
	What can God do for us?  He can supply all grace and all sufficiency.
	"Now to Him who is able to do exceeding abundantly beyond all that we ask or think," Paul appeals in Ephesians 3:20, "according to the power that works within us."
	What can God do for us?  He can do exceeding abundantly beyond all that we ask or think.
	"What then shall we say to these things?" we read in Romans 8:31-39. "If God {is} for us, who {is} against us?  He who did not spare His own Son, but delivered Him up for us all, how will He not also with Him freely give us all things?  Who will bring a charge against God's elect? God is the one who justifies; who is the one who condemns? Christ Jesus is He who died, yes, rather who was raised, who is at the right hand of God, who also intercedes for us.  Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword?  Just as it is written, 'For Thy sake we are being put to death all day long; we were considered as sheep to be slaughtered.'  But in all these things we overwhelmingly conquer through Him who loved us.  For I am convinced that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor any other created thing, shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord."
	What can God do for us?  He can love us until the end.
	"For this reason I also suffer these things," Paul explains in 2 Timothy 1:12, "but I am not ashamed; for I know whom I have believed and I am convinced that He is able to guard what I have entrusted to Him until that day." 
	What can our great God do for us?  He can keep what has been entrusted to Him unto that day.  If we entrust our souls to Him and hold to His truth, He will set us free.

Unless otherwise noted, "Scripture taken from the NEW AMERICAN STANDARD BIBLE(R), (C) Copyright The Lockman Foundation 1960, 1962, 1963, 1968, 1971, 1972, 1973, 1975, 1977. Used by permission."