Behold Your God! (and others)

Behold Your God! (and others)

The more we have to do with man - the more his littleness, fickleness, and emptiness appear.

But the more we read, think, or have to do with God - the more His greatness, majesty, and infinite sufficiency is discovered! He proclaims Himself, "The Great and Mighty God, the Lord Almighty is His name - great in counsel and mighty in work!" Infinite, omnipotence, and eternity - find a home and a center only in Him.

"His Greatness is unsearchable!" There is more in the works of His hands - than even the angels have ever discovered! There is more in the words of His mouth - than mortals ever conceived. His glory is great unto and above the heavens. "Behold your God." (Isaiah 40:9).

Look at His goodness - it runs an endless circuit supplying millions and supporting all created existences. O how great is His goodness!

Look at His grace - saving innumerable multitudes from hell; saving them at the greatest expense - in the freest possible way; saving them to the highest honor and greatest glory! O the exceeding riches of His grace!

Look at His judgments - He sweeps the ancient world with His broom of destruction! He makes the cities of the plain into a hell on earth! He overthrows Pharaoh and his army in the Red Sea! He encaverns Korah, Dathan, Abiram, and their households in the belly of the earth!

O if we could look into hell, or listen for a moment at the door of the bottomless pit - how dreadful would His judgment appear! We cannot fathom them - but we must exclaim with the apostle, "O the depth of the riches both of the wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable are His judgments, and His ways past finding out!"

Look at His power. He speaks a world into existence, sustains it, supports every creature upon it - and perhaps millions of worlds beside it. All these things are alike easy for Him. Difficulty is with man - not with God. "Ah Lord God! Behold, You have made the Heaven and the earth by Your great power and outstretched arm! Nothing is too hard for You!"

Look at His wisdom. It is infinite. Read it in creation's ponderous folio! Then turn to the glorious plan of grace. Here is a display of "the manifold wisdom of God." Angels are learning it - and we can scarcely make out its alphabet at present! But we have God for our teacher, eternity for our duration, and Heaven for the place where we shall fully learn the greatness of the wisdom of God.

Look at His holiness. It is so bright that no mortal eye has seen, or can see it - in its unveiled glory! "Now we see but a poor reflection!" We have but some faint discoveries - for He is glorious in holiness, fearful in praises, constantly doing wonders!

Look at His mercy.  It is a boundless ocean - without bottom, bank or shore! The manifestations of His mercy are innumerable! The proofs of His mercy are like mountains piled on mountains, reaching to the heavens! The overflowing of His mercy has supplied the needs of unnumbered multitudes.

"Who is so great a God as our God?~

He is a mighty and awesome God - yet so glorious and kind that the feeblest petitioner need not fear!

~James Smith~
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The Omnipresence of God

"Where shall I go from Your Spirit? Where shall I flee from Your presence?" (Psalm 139:7).

The omnipresence of God! How baffling to any finite comprehension! To think that above us, and around us, and within us - there is Deity - the invisible footprints of an Omniscient, Omnipresent One! "His Eyes are in every place!" On rolling planets - and tiny atoms; on the bright seraph - and the lowly worm; roaming in searching scrutiny through the tracks of immensity - and reading the dark and hidden page of my heart! "All things are naked and opened unto the eyes of Him with whom we have to do!"

O God! shall this Your Omnipresence appall me? No! In my seasons of sadness and sorrow and loneliness - when other comforts and comforters have failed - when, it may be, in the darkness and silence of some midnight hour, in vain I have sought repose - how sweet to think, "My God is here! I am not alone! The Omniscient One, to whom the darkness and the light are both alike - is hovering over my sleepless pillow!" O my Unsetting Sun, it cannot be darkness or loneliness or sadness - where You are. There can be no night to the soul which has been cheered with Your glorious radiance!

"Surely, I am with you always!" How precious, blessed Jesus, is  this. Your legacy of parting love! Present with each of Your people until the end of time - ever present, omnipresent. The true "Pillar of cloud" by day - and "Pillar of fire" by night, preceding and encamping by us in every step of our wilderness journey. My soul! think of Him at this moment - as present with every member of the family that He has redeemed with His blood! Yes, and as much present with every individual soul, as if He had none other to care for - but as if that one engrossed all His affection and love!

The Great Builder; the Great shepherd; the Great High Priest. Jesus! Your perpetual and all-pervading presence turns darkness into day! The omnipresence of God - gracious antidote to every earthly sorrow!

"I have set the Lord always before me!" Even now, as night is drawing its curtains around me, be this my closing prayer, "Blessed Saviour! abide with me, for it is toward evening, and the day is far spent!" Under the shadowing wings of Your presence and love, "I will both lie down and sleep in peace, for You alone, O Lord, make me live in safety!" (Psalm 4:8).

~John McDuff~