Your God Is Too Small — Morning Devotions

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He is far bigger than any of us. “He is God – we’re not,” Phillips said. No one is ever really at ease in facing what we call life and death without a religious faith. The trouble with many people today is that they’ve not found God a big enough God to meet their modern needs. Their experiences in life have expanded, but they have not come to know the all knowing and all-powerful true God of the Bible. This was written, of course, in 1960 but I think it’s still relevant today.

Understanding God for who He truly is

We think that the God we serve is not big enough to meet the challenges of modern life, leaving us disheartened and frustrated. So is JB Phillips, right? Is your God too small? Perhaps your view of God goes back to Sunday school days as a child. The ‘god in a box‘ notion limiting God to an inadequate concept as the resident policeman or a grand old man, or someone who is meek and mild or the managing director – and as a result are a host of insufficient ideas of God. Many people live with this inner dissatisfaction without any faith. This is because they’ve not found with their adult minds a God who is big enough. Perhaps we think of God in terms of our upbringing or our hurts in life. We create an image of God, and we tend to tailor God to our own needs. For instance, a grandfatherly or grandmotherly sort of figure when we’re needing comfort or when we’ve just won that job or prize, things are going well, and we say God is that personal sponsor who is on our side.

So we do prefer a God who is small, that God, that we can manage and predict and control the kind of God that feels safe to us. We can understand him and explain him. He doesn’t embarrass us, confuse or contradict us. He doesn’t make us mad. We just want him to make us feel nice and safe and comfortable. So many of us are worried. We’re worn out. We face each day emptier than the day before. And if we’re not careful, that emptiness threatens to consume us, and it moves to take over everything else.

A small god. Well, a small god can’t help me, but this is simply not the god that we encounter in the Bible. The God of the Bible is the opposite of small and manageable. He’s big, but he’s not just big. He’s bigger than big. He’s bigger than all the words we use to say big. He defies our abilities to put him in some sort of category. Most people want a God who is only slightly bigger, a slightly smarter version of us. But the God of the Bible is something altogether different. And here’s the irony. Only a God like that can explain the mysteries of life and give us a real sense of purpose and ignites our passions. It’s like the British philosopher Evelyn Underhill, who famously said, ‘A god small enough to be understood is not big enough to be worshipped.‘

If we were really honest this morning, we want a God who is slightly smarter, a slightly smarter version of me. And wouldn’t that make life much easier? When we keep God small, we allow God to remain distant. Does God watch us from a distance, as the popular song says? Or is God moving in and through creation in every moment of time? Does he do that today? Did he do it yesterday? I believe that he is.

Just as the Bible explains, the real God is vast beyond our own, comprehending beautiful beyond our appreciation and wonderful beyond our own imagining. Because God encompasses everything – the past, the present and the future, near and far – God is above and beyond, close and compassionate. Do you believe that God can do anything in your life? Do you believe that nothing is too hard for God? We do have a vast love and powerful God who was at work within us, and he is able to accomplish abundantly far more than we can ask or imagine.

Let’s Pray

Dear God, I understand that often I put you in a small box, I say you’re just too small for me. Lord, help me to get rid of that idea and to see you as the grand, eternal, phenomenal God that we love and serve and who loves us and protects us. I pray for this in Jesus’ name. Amen.

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