The Works of God

I am a natural grumbler – takes no effort at all.  But even I’m surprised at how small my circumstances need to be for me to grumble at God.

This time, it was a head cold.  How ridiculous is that!  We have big issues in our house, and God has helped us on a daily basis for years with those issues.  And I found myself complaining to God about a head cold.  Clearly, I was thinking in my own head, I am far too important in the affairs of the universe to have to deal with a head cold!  Really, Lord, what are you thinking!

God mercifully brought a good word through Randy Alcorn’s blog yesterday on an entirely different subject (in this case, hell).  But these words jumped off the page to rebuke my hard heart and to call me back to a right understanding (emphasis in bold is mine):

There will be no end to dismantling doctrines if we consider it our calling to try to make God look good in our eyes and our culture’s. If his definition of good is different than ours, we dare not expect him to be the one who changes. The Almighty doesn’t need us to give him a facelift and airbrush his image. Our task is not to help people see God favorably but to see him accurately. God has the power, through the true gospel, to touch hearts and draw people to his love and grace while they fully affirm his holiness and justice. It’s not either/or, it’s both/and.

We are tempted to shrink God so he fits inside the borders of our minds. But those are small borders, and he is a big God. There’s great comfort in knowing a God who loves me but doesn’t need my counsel.

And that reminded me of something I had just read a few days ago:

You turn things upside down!
Shall the potter be regarded as the clay,
that the thing made should say of its maker,
“He did not make me”;
or the thing formed say of him who formed it,
“He has no understanding”?

Isaiah 29:16

God is kind to remind me who is who – he is creator and I am created.  He is good and I am entirely sinful separate from him.  He is strong and I am weak.  He sustains when I am demonstrating all kinds of failure.

So, I repented of my little faith and grumbling heart.  And I asked him to take away my cold, because I know he cares for me.