How Big Is Your God?

I travelled to Haiti with a church group to serve with a team at a pastor’s leadership conference. This was the first of its kind for this group of Haitian pastors and the team who coordinated the event. There was a great turnout, and God was really working on the group who participated. At the same time, He was really working on me. For starters, I had to teach through a translator which is pretty challenging. I knew the process would stretch me, but I had no idea how uncomfortable it would make me. I remember the first time during the talk when I said something to the translator and they simply looked at me with a puzzled face. Turns out what I was trying to say couldn’t even be translated in the local language.

There were moments when I had no idea what to say next, but each time God provided words and I managed to get through the sessions without any major problems. God reminded me that day how big of a God He is. The depressing part of the lesson was that God showed me how small I make Him.

When I pray my prayers and look at Him through the lens of my own life, I realized I have a tendency to put Him in a tiny little box and lean on Him based on my circumstances. The idea of His bigness escaped me. However, the Haitian people sparked a new perspective in me through the simple act of prayer. I distinctly remember a time when the entire group was in prayer after one of the messages. During the prayer, I could hear the low murmur of the Haitian people calling out to God in their native language. As I sought God in my own prayer time, I realized that despite my inability to understand a word they were saying, God heard every bit of it, and He completely understood it. He created every person in that room, He knew every persons heart, their desires, and their struggles. He is so big, and I make Him so small. He can do big things in me, and big things through me and this mission trip was being used for that purpose.

When you pray, do you pray tiny little prayers based on your own needs, or do you occasionally pray big? Have you asked God to open up doors that would provide such opportunity that it would be obvious only God Himself could have made it happen? What about surrendering everything you value to Him so that He can fully conform you to the image of His son? Have you ever asked Him to change your circumstances, or your vocation, or your family situation in a way that fully aligns with what He wants versus what you want? Would you pray a big prayer like that? Its is scary, but the Bible tells us that we are His workmanship created for good works which He prepared beforehand so that we would walk in them (Ephesians 2:10).

Seek Him first, pray big, and be transformed.

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