Can we say that God is Great? ...

Wednesday, Jan 2, 2019. Can we say that God is great? You might ask yourself - in particular when you hear some Christians praise God. At the beginning of a new year, what can we say about our perspective, and about the history of the past 12 month with respect to our own life? Can you say for yourself: God is great? It will depend on your relationship to God, on your insight and understanding of who he is and what he has do to with you, with your life.

Sing praises to God …

The bible has the basic understanding that God is fantastic. He is wonderful. He is great, much to be praised. When is something or someone to be praised? When he or it is truly fantastic. When he, she or it is really good. God is to be praised in this sense - he is just wonderful! As an example, in Psalm 47 we find the this invitation and demand to praise God:

Sing praises to God, sing praises! Sing praises to our King, sing praises! 7 For God is the King of all the earth; sing praises with a psalm! (Psalm 47, 6ff)

The bible is full of worship, full of praise when it comes to God. It praises the creator, the father, the beginning of all what is. It also praises Christ Jesus, the son. He is called “worthy” “to receive power and wealth and wisdom and might and honor and glory and blessing!” (Revelation 5, 12).

So why is God to be praised? As humans, we sometimes fear empty praise, we fear a praise that is not meant honestly, that just obeys the form, but does not come from a pure heart. And indeed, this fear is good to keep in mind. Who needs empty praise? Does God need it? Any human? No, we need praise which is based on fact and insight. We need praise which is based on fact and love.

So why? …

So why should we praise God? Why is he so fantastic? You need to find out yourself. You need to discover this yourself. Only then, you will be able to say from your own heart: “how great is the Lord!” So take your time to discover …

… discover God as the eternal creator. You can look at creation. Some people walk through the forest. Some go into green meadows, the grassland, the stream landscape. Others are scientists, they discover the chemistry of things. Some study physics, others mathematics. Our nature obeys deep laws, it can be described by differential equations. We can gain insight into genetics, into the structure of our body and our mind. It is highly fascinating. And there is a creator.

… discover God, the one who knows with insight. When you look into the motives and desires of men and women. Who knows it all? Who can describe it? Who has insight into it? Read the bible, the Old Testament and the New Testament. It describes what man is. And the more your read, the more you understand, the deeper and more miraculous is the insight which the bible has. For thousands of years this insight has been around, to be read and to be understood.

… discover God, the one who saves. Men and women can be cruel. We hurt each other. Starvation and pain is widely spread. Ignorance, hatred, greed. You know it all. But also there is forgiveness. There is love. There is joy. There is truth. There is dedication. And in Jesus God comes into this creation, he comes into its pain and cruelty. He dies at the cross, for the sin of the world. Something unbelievable happens here at the cross. When we start to understand it, we stand breathless, with a sense of wonder. We start to discover why Jesus is called the king of peace, and why the heavens sing “worthy is the lamb”. We start to understand the praise the bible talks about … (Roland Potthast) ... further texts