Do We See God In Little Situations?

Do We See God in Little Situations?

A good part of our failure as followers of Christ lies, it seems, in our inability to see our mighty Savior as One who is interested, and capable of helping, in the little situations of everyday life. Our thoughts of Him, in relation to our need, are on such a grand scale that the ordinary problems of today have no place in the picture. Quite readily we see Him stretched in agony on the cross for our sins, but we cannot so readily see Him concerned about how we are going to make the paycheck reach to pay the bills or how we are going to manage through a long layoff period. We have difficulty seeing the great God of our salvation being concerned about why the boss should not agree with our idea instead of giving acceptance to a lesser idea than our own. We don’t see Him concerned over a neighborhood dispute. We don’t see Him anxious over a marital spat.

The Greatness of God in Little Situations

But the greatness of the God of our salvation lies in this, that He can be and is concerned about the minute problems of the humans that inhabit this planet. He assures us that the divine inventory of our make-up is very carefully made, numbering the very hairs of our head. He tells us that if He did not spare His own Son, but delivered Him up for us all, “God did not keep back his own Son, but he gave him for us. If God did this, won’t he freely give us everything else?” (CEV Romans 8:32) And as One, who in every respect was tempted as we are, He is able to “sympathize with our weaknesses” (NKJV Hebrews 4:15). He knows human weaknesses, and is in sympathy with us.

Our Faith Does Not Match Divine Potential

The fact that we often fail to find help from such a mighty and yet sympathetic God lies not with God’s inability but with our little faith. Our faith does not match the potential of God’s help. We forget for the moment that He is adequate and that He is interested in every detail and every problem of our life. With us there is often “little faith,” but with Him there is always a great power to help—even in our weaknesses.

This we learn also from looking to the shore of the Sea of Galilee and seeing how Jesus demonstrated in a miraculous way that Christ triumphs over human weaknesses.

I

Human Weakness Needs Divine Help

The Littleness of Faith Dramatized In Many Situations

Our weaknesses were dramatized at the moment out there on the Sea of Galilee when, Christ walked on water. Way past midnight, Peter sees the gust of wind and is afraid. He began to sink and cried out, “Lord save me!” This cry serves to highlight what was so much in evidence at that time in Jesus’ Galilean ministry: littleness of faith all around.

So many things demonstrated the “little faith” of those around Him. His own countrymen in the Galilee area took offense at Him and would not believe, so that Jesus marveled because of their unbelief.

Multitudes followed Jesus’ ship from shore and appeared to the Master as “sheep without a shepherd,” He had compassion on them. He taught them, He healed their sick, and He fed them with five loaves and two fish. But then they misunderstood Him and wanted to make Him king. So He had to send them away. How little did His patient instruction and His healing hand and His blessing of the loaves mean to them when that day was ended! No doubt, when Jesus went up into the hills by himself to pray that night, this grossly materialistic multitude was the burden of much of His praying.

The same day the disciples of John were faced with a grave crisis in their lives. John the Baptist was executed by the spineless Herod. They had performed the sad but loving task of committing his body to the ground. When that was done they came and told Jesus. Without doubt, Jesus knew of the problems and the doubts that now tortured their minds. And we can hardly doubt that Jesus’ prayer on the mountain that night was for these disciples of John too.

His own disciples had just returned from a preaching mission that day. They had been very busy casting out devils, anointing the sick with oil and healing them, and preaching repentance. Now as they came to Jesus, they were just bubbling over with so many experiences to tell Jesus. Hearing them, He invites them to come away by themselves to a lonely place and rest a while (Mark 6:31). He knew what they did not know just then: that to continue their active ministry, to face the many challenges of tomorrow, to meet the problems and not to fail, they needed the strength that can be found only in quiet communion with God.