What Size is Your God: Remembering From Where Your Strength and Joy Comes

“How much money does he have, Daddy?” My seven year old curiously asked about a family member out of a recent fascination with fancy cars and fun toys.

“I don’t know,” my husband responded calmly with an ounce of his own curiosity. “But I will tell you something: you can either have a lot of money and a small God or a little money and a big God, it’s very difficult to have a lot of both.”

An innocent bystander of this interaction, I intercepted glances and body language from each side trying my best to discern their continuing thoughts. My gaze softened as I reached for my phone to record this quote before my mind wandered to the next thing.

My husband, a wise man who has modeled for our family what it means to pursue the eternal over the temporary, described this verse so simply that its depth caused me to pause.

In Matthew 6:24 Jesus warns his disciples that,

“No one can serve two masters, for either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and money.” (ESV)

I know this passage well, but it’s the applying of this passage that wreaks havoc on my fleshly desires. This sweet, innocent conversation gifted clarity for me and reminded me that where I place my greatest affections in this life will not only determine the path I follow, but determine the size of my God.

Another way to say it is that all little masters in my life detract from the one Master worth serving. So, I’m wondering if you need the same reminder today.

As we enter into a new month I’m asking, what size God am I believing in and trusting for…

my marriage,

the health of my children,

our school rhythms,

those suffering around me,

the deep places of hurt and disappointment,

my unfulfilled longings,

unspoken anxieties?

Is it in the little ‘g’ gods and idols that I’ve trusted in time and time before who continually prove less than? Is it in the work of my own hands or within the limits of my own understanding?

Is it in my earthly successes and momentary achievements?

Or is it in the God who is “the everlasting God, the Creator of the ends of the earth”? Because Isaiah 40:28-29 reminds us that He is a God who “does not faint or grow weary; his understanding is unsearchable. He gives power to the faint, and to him who has no might he increases strength.”

Hear your Heavenly Father speak this over you.

“Is my hand shortened, that it cannot redeem? Or have I no power to deliver?” Isaiah 50:2 ESV

“I am the first and I am the last: besides me there is no god. Who is like me? Fear not, nor be afraid…Is there a God besides me? There is no rock; I know not any.” Isaiah 44:6-8 ESV

“I am the Lord, who made all things, who alone stretched out the heavens, who spread out the earth by myself.” Isaiah 45:24 ESV

“To whom will you liken me and make me equal, and compare me, that we may be alike? Remember this and stand firm…I am God, and there is no other; I am God, and there is no one like me, declaring the end from the beginning and from ancient times things not yet done…I will accomplish my purpose.” Isaiah 46:5, 8-10 ESV

Selah.

I pray we encourage one another to acknowledge the other masters in our lives that have drawn our affections away from the One alone who can deliver us from the darkest nights and redeem the impossible.

May we continue to view Him as the Sovereign Creator and Sustainer that He is as we continue onward, and may we delight once again in the Great I Am.

Amen.