God is like…well, everything

So this post is going to sound a little weird at first, but I promise it will make sense. Basically, this idea came about by one of the freshmen in my Impact camp, and it is this: You can compare God accurately to literally anything in this world. Just think about that statement for a second, if you try, you can compare God to anything in the world, from the most mundane item to the most complex theory, God can be seen in absolutely everything. Now I have been trying to write this post for several weeks now, but each time I just came up empty, not finding the right words to sufficiently explain what I want to say. So now I am just going to write and write, and trust that the Holy Spirit will guide my writing and give me the right words to say.

Now lets try some examples:

• God is like a trashcan because many people ignore it and try to forget about it, but occasionally someone will see value hidden within and do everything they can to find that treasure. (Matthew 13:44-46)
• God is like a car because you only get out of it as much as you put into it. If you neglect your car, don't fill it up, don't take time to maintain it, then you will only go so far before it dies and you are left stranded, alone, sad, and helpless. But if you constantly put in the time and resources to maintain your car, then your car will be faithful and will take you where you need to go. (James 4:8)
• God is like our solar system because we can be told all about it but we will never fully understand its scope. In addition, there is so much about our solar system that we still do not know, and there is so much more beyond what we can see with out eyes. (Psalm 139:7, Isaiah 40:12)

And I could keep going on and on. It's actually funny, before I started typing these similes, I didn't even think of including Bible verses, but they just came naturally as I wrote them. And this very fact shows me two really huge truths about God and His Word: first being that God is in everything because He MADE everything, and he wants us to be able to see Him at the heart of everything in this world and love Him for creating such a beautiful world so full of joy. Second is that God will never leave us alone, He will never have us do anything that is not completely under His control, and he will not leave us unequipped to do His will in this earth.

I want to look at the second one first, then come back to the first. God has equipped us for literally anything that could come our way so that in everything we might be able to proclaim Him glory. 2 Timothy 3:16-17 says is this way: "All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting, and training in righteousness, so that the servant of God may be equipped for every good work." Again in Ephesians 6, we see Paul describing the Gospel like a suit of armor, and this is the passage for which this blog is named. Every part of the standard Roman soldier's armor, from the helmet to the boots, are described, and all are integral to the survival of the soldier. In the same way, every bit of the Gospel is necessary for us to be equipped to carry out our Lord's will in this earth. But one of the most poignant reminders is in calling the Word of God the Sword of the Spirit; everything else we are given is for protection against the evils of the world, but when we know the Bible, we are ready to go on the offensive, to not just be saved from the things of this world, but to engage in battle with Satan and his angels.

Earlier in Ephesians 6 we see that we are not fighting a battle "against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms." So it is this very reason that we fight against evil: when we have been called into the light of God's grace, we have been forgiven of our sins and stolen away from Satan and the grip of Hell. This infuriates Satan, and as a result he does everything he can to steal us back, because he comes "to steal, kill, and destroy" (John 10:10). But we have already won the battle, because God is good and he has given us the resources necessary to defeat sin in every area of our lives. And this is all contained in the Bible, and if we every are struggling with a certain sin, we can be assured that there is SOME passage or verse in the Bible that will give us strength to look to God to be freed from our sin. 1 Corinthians 10:13 confirms this: "No temptation has overtaken you except what is common to man. And God is faithful; he will not let you be tempted beyond what you can bear. But when you are tempted, he will also provide a way out, so that you can endure it."

Now lets get back to the first point: God is everywhere, in everything, and all creation proclaims the glory that is our loving Father. Romans 1:20 - "For since the creation of the world God's invisible qualities--his eternal power and divine nature--have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made, so that people are without excuse." Everything that we have and everything we see in this world has been created by God. Even the sinful things of this world proclaim the glory of God, because his grace is enough to use the sin in our lives to bring us to repentance. In fact, God and his angels delight in seeing a sinner brought to repentance (Luke 15:7). So for this reason, God wants to show the entire world who he is, and so he put a little bit of himself in everything He created. The reason we can compare God to anything in this world is that He is so glorious, so massive, so much greater than anything we can even comprehend. There isn't a single thing in all Creation that does not allude to the presence of a single, omnipresent God who loves us enough to send his Son to this earth, to die a sinner's death on the cross and with it burying all our shame and our transgressions, allowing us to once again live in perfect community with our Father for all eternity. And so God created all things to be beautiful and to bring joy to us, all for His glory.

But what is cool is how these two ideas are so intricately intertwined, even though they seem completely separate. Just read Psalm 19, and meditate on that for a while; it is beautiful how one psalm can so seamlessly combine the perfection of Gods creation with the prefect of His Word and the perfection of His plan to redeem us from our sins and defeat the sin in this world. God is good; he will never leave us alone, and wants everything in this world to remind us of that fact.