Greater is He

You, dear children, are from God and have overcome them, because the one who is in you is greater than the one who is in the world.  –1 John 4:4

Remember the old Looney Toons episode where the two dogs, Spike and Chester, spend the whole episode trying to catch Sylvester the cat?  Initially Spike, the bulldog, is the hero and Chester, the hyper terrier, is the sidekick.  Chester idolizes Spike, but by the end of the episode Chester becomes the hero because he succeeds in taking on the cat when Spike could not.  They switch roles and the bigger, stronger dog becomes the sidekick to the much smaller dog.

Often we make giants out of negative people and circumstances in our lives.  We see them as huge and intimidating, and ourselves as weak or incapable of overcoming them.  We forget Who lives in us!  We may look like a tiny terrier on the outside, but inside lives a giant bulldog of a God who fights on our behalf.  Nothing is impossible for Him!  If we really believe in the power of the One that lives in us, it empowers us to succeed in any circumstance.  Whether that success looks like overcoming an obstacle, finding the strength to endure a difficult season, or making a connection with someone who initially seems unreachable, our God makes it all possible.  He is bigger than any diagnosis, financial strain, or emotional loss.  He is big enough to carry us when we are too weak to hold on to hope, defeat our enemies, take our negative situation and turn it around for our good and His glory, and make every piece of our lives work together (even when we can’t imagine how that could be done).  No matter how intimidating the circumstance may appear, it cannot match the power of our God!  Now, it’s important to note that succeeding may be a process rather than an event, so we may not see it manifest immediately. We can trust, though, that God is working on it even when we can’t see physical evidence yet.  This is an area where we have an opportunity to have very big faith!  God only requires us to have faith the size of a mustard seed, but imagine if our faith is bigger.  Imagine what God can do when our faith is large enough to drown out fear ?  How much bigger mountains could we move if we truly believed, down to our toes, that God is a BIG God with BIG abilities and a BIG desire to help us overcome?

I challenge us to seek God this week and ask Him to reveal the scope of His power to us, so that we can see Him and our circumstances in the proper perspective, and thereby trust Him more deeply.

#worry #trust #faith #hope #anxiety #struggle #trials #spiritualgrowth #fear