God is almighty. That is what we as Chris­tians confess with the first words of the Apostle's Creed. As the Al­mighty, He created heaven and earth. He has "all might" — is able to do anything and everything He wants to do. There are no limits to His power. Another word for this is in­finity. This means that there are no limits in Him.

God is Spirit. We who are earthly creatures cannot see Him, or find Him. If we are to know Him He must come to us, reveal Himself to us. Man can never find or discover God. But questions arise here. If He is Spirit and infinite, how can that have any meaning for us? It can have meaning only when He compares Himself with something we can see and know with our senses. There­fore, in the Bible God often com­pares Himself with the universe in which we live. This suggests that we who live in the 20th century can know more about the greatness of God than people could who lived before our day. God's revelation in nature to them was adequate, but we can know much more about His majesty. God told Abraham to go outside one night and count the stars, of which he saw many on a clear night. But when today we look at the stars through a telescope, we see many more than Abraham could see with his naked eye. Accordingly, what God told Abraham should mean that much more to us.

The universe is immensely great. Astronomers tell us that there are billions of stars. How much is a bil­lion? None of us can begin to im­agine what it is. If someone would start counting, one number per second, and keep on counting day and night, it would take him 8000 years to get to 250 billion. Astron­omers speak of "light years" when they try to describe distances in the universe. A light year is the distance light traveling 186,000 miles per second covers in a year. Can anyone even begin to imagine how far a light year is? And if some stars are es­timated to be 70,000 light years from the earth, how far that is? The thought is staggering. The universe seems to be almost without end. We confess on Sunday in church that we believe in God the Father almighty maker of heaven and earth. Only faith can accept and believe that God could create such a universe. How great God must be!

This revelation of God, which is completely beyond our comprehen­sion, makes us human beings in­finitesimally small. Isaiah says that all men are before God like some dust on a scale (Isaiah 40:15). How marvelous it is that we have been created "in His image." In a crea­turely way, we may be something like God. And we can know Him, which "is life eternal" (John 17:3). How ter­rible sin is in the light of this great­ness of God! Just imagine, that little, sinful man wants to replace God (Romans 1:23). What audacity to reject his creator (v. 25)!

Now think of the amazing miracle of the incarnation. This great God becomes one with tiny man in the person of Jesus Christ. Only faith can accept this.

The authors of the Bible often use the earth and the universe as ex­amples to give us some idea of the greatness of God. Consider a few of them.

Isaiah 40:25, 26:

To whom will you compare me? Or who is my equal? says the Holy One. Lift up your eyes and look to the heavens: Who has created all these? He who brings out the starry host one by one and calls them each by name.

Here the prophet speaks of God as the Creator, Who also saves His people. Israel in bondage in Babylon may feel God has forgotten them, does not know their needs, or may even think that He is not able to deliver them. How foolish this is when we remember that God is the Creator of the world.

God says (Isaiah 55:9):

As the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts.

We must remember this, especially when in need and over­whelmed with problems. When we are mystified by His ways, we must remember that there is "no search­ing of His understanding." The love of God, but also His purpose, intent and design in our afflictions are far beyond the grasp of our small human minds. He wants us to trust in His promises:

Psalm 103:11, 12:

For as high as the heavens are above the earth, so great is His love for those who fear Him: as far as east is from west, so far has He removed our transgressions from us.

The psalmist speaks here of the forgiving love of God; it is "as high as the heavens are above the earth." In the light of the fact that this is mil­lions of miles, we get some idea how great the love of God (in Christ) is for His people. Notice also the next verse. "As far as east is from west, so far has He removed our transgres­sions from us." (May we conclude that the Holy Spirit here intentional­ly does not say, "as far as north is from south"? The distance from the north pole to the south pole can be measured, but not the distance from east to west. If one goes east and keeps on going he reaches the point where he began.) No one can measure the greatness of the forgiv­ing love of God.

Psalms 36:5;

Your love, O God, reaches to the heavens, your faithfulness to the skies.

The ques­tion may arise, how far is it "to the heavens" and "to the skies?" Again, we are speaking about distances of millions of miles. In the context of these words, David is speaking of the wicked. "There is no fear of God before their eyes, the words of their mouths are wicked and deceitful. They love evil." But, by contrast, the love of God and His faithfulness reach to the heavens, or the skies. The love with which God reaches out to His people is indescribable. God does not fail. His promises stand. His love is not dependent upon ours. He is everlastingly faith­ful to His Word and His church. We live in a world, like that which David describes, where people easily and commonly hate and reject each other and man is changeable. But God's love and faithfulness never fails His people.

If God is so great, we can under­stand the Scripture teaching that with Him "all things are possible" and that He never has any problems. Our problems are no problems to Him. If He wishes, He can remove our biggest without any difficulty. But if He doesn't remove them, He has a purpose with them, for our good. We may never question whether God can do what He will. The only thing that God cannot do, and never will, is love sin. That is contrary to His holiness. We may not question His doings, His right to do what He will. People often ask why they encounter adversity and trouble. What did I do to deserve this? Or why do good people suffer? And, why do some suffer more than others? These questions show rebel­lion. Because God is as great as the Bible says He is, in His love and wis­dom, we must acknowledge His sovereignty and pray, trust and wait.

Faith in God is the final answer to every question we may have. If we, considering the many prayers that as­cend to God at one time, ask how He can listen to all of them simul­taneously we must remember that that's no problem to Him. He can give each one "individual attention." Gods knows all the conditions of all the millions of people in the world, and in a special way He knows His own, with all their aches and pains and all their fears and hopes. By the time the world comes to an end and God will have reached His purpose with creation, millions, or billions of people will have lived and died. And their bodies will have returned to dust. The Bible says, that "all who are in the graves will ... come forth" (John 5:28, 29). How will that be pos­sible? The answer is, we have an al­mighty God.

When in church we confess: I believe in God the Father, Almighty maker of heaven and earth, we must put our trust in His love, wisdom, and faithfulness. Abraham had the promise of a son, but he had to wait twenty-five years for that promise to be fulfilled. He had to put his con­fidence in Almighty God.

God wants that simple, child-like trust.

What a blessing it is for us, small and insignificant in ourselves, sin­ners by nature, to belong to this great God, omnipotent in His love and infallible in His wisdom.

He deserves all our praise and all our love!