God Is Bigger Than Your Problems
Scott Hubbard / Sunday, November 18, 2018 7:01 PM
God Is Bigger Than Your Problems
The promises of God often lose their power in our lives because God himself
has become small in our eyes.
We may be able to recite God’s promises by the dozens. But in our hearts,
God is no longer the King who conquers armies and cuts a valley in the sea.
He
is no longer the Shepherd who seeks his sheep and keeps them safe behind his
staff. He is no longer the Lord who walks on waves and calls the dead back
from the grave. Slowly, subtly, we have forgotten God’s power, God’s wisdom,
God’s tenderness.
When the promises of God seem powerless to quiet our fears, soothe our
grief, lift our worries, or motivate our obedience, we need to do more than
simply
hear his promises again. We need to behold the God who gives them.
Promises Buried
In Isaiah 40, the prophet speaks to a group of broken Israelites. The nation
that once shone like the stars in the sky had been blackened by exile.
As Israel looked back from Babylon, the promises of God seemed buried. How
would God give Israel an everlasting kingdom when they were slaves in a
foreign
land (2 Samuel 7:13)? How would God make Israel a blessing to the world when
a curse had fallen on them (Genesis 12:3)? How would God raise up from
Israel
a serpent-crushing king when they were under Babylon’s heel (Genesis 3:15)?
We can ask similar questions when we remember God’s promises from the
wreckage of our circumstances. We can look ahead to a life of unwanted
singleness
and ask, “How can God satisfy me?” We can look back at a devastating failure
and ask, “How can God forgive me?” We can look up from the crater of some
loss and ask, “How can God comfort me?”
In those moments, we need God to do for us what he did for Israel. We need
him to come alongside us, remind us of his promises, and then say, “Behold
your
God” (Isaiah 40:9).
Behold Your God
Who is the God who gives his promises to us? He is the God of might, who
created the world by his word. He is the God of wisdom, who makes a way in
the
wilderness. He is the God of tenderness, who carries his children home. And
he is bigger than all of our problems.
God of Might
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Behold, the Lord God comes with might, and his arm rules for him. (Isaiah
40:10)
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Behold the God of might, who created the world by his word.
The God who speaks his promises to us is the same God who said, “Let there
be light,” and the darkness fled (Genesis 1:3). When he speaks, stars burn
and
planets lock into orbit; rivers run and oceans fill earth’s floors; valleys
sink and mountains race to the sky. The grass in all the world may wither,
and the flower on every hillside fade, but the word of him who made them
will stay and stand forever (Isaiah 40:8).
Are your troubles as untamed as the ocean? God holds them in the hollow of
his hand (Isaiah 40:12). Are your sorrows as vast as the heavens? God
measures
them like a carpenter at his workbench (Isaiah 40:12). Are your burdens as
heavy as the hills? God picks them up and puts them on his scale (Isaiah
40:12).
Your problems may be massive, but your God is mighty. The sun will fail to
shine sooner than his word will fall to the ground — no matter how big our
problems.
God of Wisdom
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Who has measured the Spirit of the Lord, or what man shows him his counsel?
(Isaiah 40:13)
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Behold the God of wisdom, who makes a way in the wilderness.
The Israelites thought their future as a nation had fallen with Jerusalem’s
walls, and that not even God could raise them up again. “My way is hidden
from
the Lord,” they said. “My right is disregarded by my God” (Isaiah 40:27).
But Israel’s exile had not taken God by surprise, nor had it cast them out
of his sight. “Have you not known?” Isaiah asks. “Have you not heard? The
Lord
is the everlasting God. . . . His understanding is unsearchable” (Isaiah
40:28). When Israel was lost in the wilderness of exile, and saw no way of
getting
back home, God paved a highway right through the desert (Isaiah 40:3).
No trouble is too tangled for God to untie. No path is too twisted for him
to straighten. No heart is too shattered for him to gather up and put back
together.
Your problems may be bewildering, but your God is wise. He sees you. He
knows every detail of your trouble. And he knows how to come alongside you
as you
wait for him and make you rise up with wings like eagles (Isaiah 40:31).
God of Tenderness
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He will tend his flock like a shepherd; he will gather the lambs in his
arms; he will carry them in his bosom, and gently lead those that are with
young.
(Isaiah 40:11)
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Behold the God of tenderness, who carries his children home.
Before God thunders forth his majesty in Isaiah 40, he speaks to Israel with
the gentleness of a mother’s hush: “Comfort, comfort my people, says your
God” (Isaiah 40:1). God
