Our Great Big God

As Christians, we believe that our faith in God can conquer anything. We are inspired by Mark 11:23: “For verily I say unto you, That whosoever shall say unto this mountain, Be thou removed, and be thou cast into the sea; and shall not doubt in his heart, but shall believe that those things which he saith shall come to pass; he shall have whatsoever he saith.”

Our God is a mountain-mover. He can bring peace to troubled situations. He can heal bodies. He can replace hopelessness with hope. We know that our God is mighty.

But sometimes, when we look at our own mountains, we wonder if maybe they are just a little too big for God. We think, “I believe that God can move mountains but you have never sent the size of my mountain.” Often, we find it easier to believe in God’s power to move someone else’s mountain. But we know all the details about our mountains. To us, they are like cement, impossible to move.

We think that God can be victorious in some things but not others. Some things in our own lives seem so big and insurmountable. An openly rebellious child. A debilitating sickness. A shattered marriage.

Let's take time out for a Bible lesson. The Israelites has soundly defeated their Syrian enemies in battle. The Syrians planned a counterattack. As part of their strategy, they decided to engage the Israelites in battle in the valley, rather than the hills. They said, “Their gods are gods of the hill; therefore they were stronger than we; but let us fight against them in the plain, and surely we shall be stronger than they” (I Kings 20:23).

The Syrians convinced themselves that the Israelite God’s power was confined to the hills. They assured themselves that they would be victorious because God’s power could not reach into the valleys, they thought.

However, God is not just God of hills; He is God of the plains also. “And there came a man of God, and spake unto the king of Israel, and said, Thus saith the LORD, Because the Syrians have said, The LORD is God of the hills, but he is not God of the valleys, therefore will I deliver all this great multitude into thine hand, and ye shall know that I am the LORD” (I Kings 20:28).

Don’t underestimate God’s power to work in your situation. He is not just capable of moving other people’s mountains; He can move yours too. He is God over everything, the hills and the plains. Be encouraged that what seems too big to us is never too big for our great big God!