The World Cannot Imagine an Infinitely Big God, So It Creates a Limited God

The problem with the world today is that it cannot imagine an infinitely big God, so it creates a limited God.  The world cannot imagine the beauty of God, so it settles for the beauty of the world.  The world cannot imagine that God is infinitely satisfying, so it settles for the finitely satisfying.  The world cannot imagine that God requires their love and not just their acknowledgement, so they do not love him and head down the path of death.  The world cannot imagine that true freedom is freedom for righteousness, so it considers slavery to sin to be freer.  The world cannot imagine that the steadfast love of the Lord is better than life, so it clings to death.  The world cannot image the hideousness of sin, so it takes sin very lightly.  The world cannot imagine the infinite stakes in life, so it takes heaven and hell lightly.  The world cannot imagine that to suffer for Christ is better than comfort for oneself, so it fails to risk.  The world cannot imagine that God will dance over the righteous, so it creates a God who is dispassionate about obedience.  The problem with the world is that it cannot imagine and that it does not wish to imagine and that it cannot listen and that it will not listen. 

How Our Wisdom Compares in Relationship to God

How should we compare our wisdom in relationship to God.  Well if we compared the smallest part of an atom to the universe and said our wisdom is like that minuscule particle and God’s wisdom is like the universe we would be heretical.  God’s wisdom is too incredibly superior than ours for that analogy to hold water.  So in the face of hurricane Katerina many people would barely dare to speak of or question God’s sovereignty.  God would reply to them like this, like he did to his servant Job, who had insisted on his own righteousness at the expense of God’s justice.  A response by John Piper defending God’s sovereignty can be found at http://www.desiringgod.org/library/fresh_words/2005/090205.html
The bible verse below is long, but well worth reading.

Job 38

1Then the LORD answered Job out of the whirlwind and said,
2"Who is this that darkens counsel
By words without knowledge?
3"Now gird up your loins like a man,
And I will ask you, and you instruct Me!
4"Where were you when I laid the foundation of the earth?
Tell Me, if you have understanding,
5Who set its measurements? Since you know.
Or who stretched the line on it?
6"On what were its bases sunk?
Or who laid its cornerstone,
7When the morning stars sang together
And all the sons of God shouted for joy?
8"Or who enclosed the sea with doors
When, bursting forth, it went out from the womb;
9When I made a cloud its garment
And thick darkness its swaddling band,
10And I placed boundaries on it
And set a bolt and doors,
11And I said, 'Thus far you shall come, but no farther
And here shall your proud waves stop'?
12"Have you ever in your life commanded the morning,
And caused the dawn to know its place,
13That it might take hold of the ends of the earth,
And (the wicked be shaken out of it?
14"It is changed like clay under the seal;
And they stand forth like a garment.
15"From the wicked their light is withheld,
And the uplifted arm is broken.
16"Have you entered into the springs of the sea
Or walked in the recesses of the deep?
17"Have the gates of death been revealed to you,
Or have you seen the gates of deep darkness?
18"Have you understood the expanse of the earth?
Tell Me, if you know all this.
19"Where is the way to the dwelling of light?
And darkness, where is its place,
20That you may take it to its territory
And that you may discern the paths to its home?
21"You know, for you were born then,
And the number of your days is great!
22"Have you entered the storehouses of the snow,
Or have you seen the storehouses of the hail,
23Which I have reserved for the time of distress,
For the day of war and battle?
24"Where is the way that the light is divided,
Or the east wind scattered on the earth?
25"Who has cleft a channel for the flood,
Or a way for the thunderbolt,
26To bring rain on a land without people,
On a desert without a man in it,
27To satisfy the waste and desolate land
And to make the seeds of grass to sprout?
28"Has the rain a father?
Or who has begotten the drops of dew?
29"From whose womb has come the ice?
And the frost of heaven, who has given it birth?
30"Water becomes hard like stone,
And the surface of the deep is imprisoned.
31"Can you bind the chains of the Pleiades,
Or loose the cords of Orion?
32"Can you lead forth a constellation in its season,
And guide the Bear with her satellites?
33"Do you know the ordinances of the heavens,
Or fix their rule over the earth?
34"Can you lift up your voice to the clouds,
So that an abundance of water will cover you? 35"Can you send forth lightnings that they may go
And say to you, 'Here we are'?
36"Who has put wisdom in the innermost being
Or given (understanding to the mind?
37"Who can count the clouds by wisdom,
Or tip the water jars of the heavens,
38When the dust hardens into a mass
And the clods stick together?
39"Can you hunt the prey for the lion,
Or satisfy the appetite of the young lions,
40When they crouch in their dens
And lie in wait in their lair?
41"Who prepares for the raven its nourishment
When its young cry to God
And wander about without food?

Job 39

1"Do you know the time themountain goats give birth?
Do you observe the calving of the deer?
2"Can you count the months they fulfill,
Or do you know the time they give birth?

All Prayer Is to Glorify God

Some people think that if prayer does not sway God then it has no value and thus prayer must have swaying power over God.  I would like to argue against this.  I think the bible clearly teaches that God is sovereign (in charge of all things and thus he is not swayed, but you will have to decide what it says for yourself.  I will just address the philosophical objection.) If we come to God as empty vessels then prayer is like stooping down with great thirst to drink of the joy the flows from God then it is of great value. For when we come to God empty we display Gods great worth.  We thus glorify God by our dependence and are thus fulfilling our purpose. 

The bible clearly teaches that the Lord smiling on us is better than any earthly treasure.  And God clearly smiles on the humble who rely on coming to him empty handed.  He does not smile on arrogance that believes it can force his hand and make him into a puppet if we merely had enough faith to sway him as they wish.  We are like children who trust our father to help us in times of trouble.  Children do not glorify their father by coming to them demanding that something be done to make them happy.  They glorify their fathers by trusting in him when they are weak.  Their father’s assurances that he gives to them strengthen their children’s trust and make them more willing to obey when their father commands them.

Since we are not trying to sway God we must remember that all prayer is to glorify God.  Thus all pray is about asking God to do what is just and praising him for his excellences and great goodness to us.  One never does not have opportunity to praise God.  We deserve eternal hell and God has set himself and the whole creation to be our inheritance.  The gift is so immense that in any physical or emotional agony we may endure we still would be right to praise God for the brilliance of the blessings that he has bestowed upon us.  And how gracious he is to us and how much better he is being to us now then what we deserve.

Prayer also keeps our eyes on God.  As such it is of great value.  We tend to take our eyes off God.  Sin makes us wish to take our eyes of God.  To deceive us into wasting our lives on trivial, petty, insignificant things instead of the all encompassing glory and beauty and significance that can be found in God.  As such it has great value.