Him Who Is Greater

Suddenly my world was not as I had ordered it. Things got tough; then got tougher. The pain of brokenness had set in and the battle was on. Where was God? I knew He was there. I wanted to believe all that I'd ever been taught. "Oh yea of little faith!" The revelation; the unveiling of "Him Who Is Greater", was about to begin.

My children and I climbed in the van to run some errands. It was morning, which was a somewhat unusual time for us to be in the car. We had taken to listening to Moody Radio because we enjoyed the older praise music and hymns they played, over the louder, more current Christian music. So I turned on the radio and settled in for a 35 minute drive. For the first 5 minutes I stared at the road and listened to the transition from one program to another. The kids were quiet; each attentive to some gee-gaw they had brought in the car.

The announcement for the next program came on. I wasn't paying that much attention. The preacher's name was given--hadn't heard of him. But then they said the name of the sermon: "Trusting God in the Midst of Crisis". I mumbled under my breath...something to the effect of "yea...sure." But God had my attention and for the next 30 minutes, I listen to James MacDonald of Walk in the Word, remind me who God really is. The tears began to fall and at one point I remember asking my 9yo son, "Are you listening to this?" He answered that he was.

We pulled into our destination. It just so happened that we had driven this far to find a Lifeway store so as to purchase a Beth Moore Bible Study book. (I'll tell you more about that later!) We sat in the parking lot, listening to the last couple of minutes of the program. Still crying, my son says to me, "Mama? How does that man know us?" I told him, "He doesn't know us, but God does and He wants us to trust Him. Do you think we can trust Him?" And my son, with tears in his little eyes said, "Yes!"

Yes! We can trust Him. "Him" who is able to do exceeding and abundantly beyond anything we can imagine. "Him" who sent His son to die for us. "Him" who put us here in the first place. "Him" who promises to never leave us...that "Him". Then we really knew we'd be okay.

Not one to let a good resource slip past me, when we got home, I got out my handy-dandy laptop and looked up this James MacDonald fella. That was when I found out that the message I had heard was the culmination of a series of messages entitled, "Always True: 5 Great and Precious Promises of God". I listened to the whole series, over and over. I cannot tell you how much it helped me to focus on who God is, rather than my own hurt! This was the beginning of really understanding that the key to my mess was glorifying God.

I'm not sure of all the answers to all the questions, but I know that I always believed that was precisely what I was doing--glorifying God. I was a believer from childhood and had all the Bible knowledge and experience to believe all the right things. I truly thought God was the most important thing in my life! But, when God begins to show you who He really is, coupled with who YOU really are!...a glory thief...the results can be somewhat distasteful. Add to that, suffering the consequences of seeking your own way and you get a muddy pile of clay at the bottom of a mud hole pit.

Enter the potter.