As an Academic, Researcher and Formulation Scientist, I design and formulate medicines for administration through various routes. For example, I am currently supervising 3 PhD projects trying to deliver drugs such as insulin and vaccines through the mouth in the cheek region to avoid the pain of injection and also remove the need for refrigeration. The materials don’t come through magic; they have to be combined in the correct and optimum proportions to achieve the safest and most effective final product. God’s creation is even more dramatic as He created the world out of nothing (in other words not from visible things). Several theories and myths exist about how the world and its inhabitants came about. The most controversial are the big bang and evolution theories which try to explain the origin of matter and life forms. According to the bible, God created animals each after its kind with the ability to reproduce hence there is no need for evolution. Evolution tries to explain natural selection through the survival of the fittest. However, it cannot account for the arrival of the first. That is why I believe in God’s creative act, because only that can explain the first organisms. I believe God created the world including man in six literal days. But the most important fact to remember is that God created the universe and all its inhabitants.
Today, we want to answer a critical question: God created the world, so what? My aim is to personalise the creation story the way God applies it through the rest of scripture, hence the title “God has it all in hand”.
STATEMENT: “The eternal God, who created the heavens and the earth, has the whole world in His hands, including yourself and all your painful needs and troubles. If the creation story only remains a theological argument in your head, you have robbed yourself of the revelation of his eternal grace, mercy and comfort”. I want to briefly address a few implications about the creation which I trust will bring real hope, comfort and faith into your hearts, especially if you have come with difficult questions today.
There are galaxies that stretch beyond our human imagination with astronomers estimating vast expanse of galaxies to be 500 million light-years long, 200 million light-years wide and 15 million light-years thick (one light-year is approximately 5.88 trillion miles). Those numbers are mind-boggling but there’s something even more amazing. God created all of those galaxies out of nothing visible and sustains everything that exists by His powerful hands. Yet that same mighty God uses the same hands to gently touch the lives of suffering men and women. Nicole Mullen was right in her song ‘My Redeemer Lives’ with the phrase “The very same God that spins things in orbit, runs to the weary, the weak and the worn”. In Psalm 147:3-4 we read that the Lord not only knows all the stars by name, but He also “heals the brokenhearted and binds up their wounds.” The creation of the universe, point to three things which God wants us to remember, when we face pain and tribulations.
1. Patience and Endurance – Isaiah 40: 25-31; Hebrews 10:35-39
The all-powerful Creator is the one who renews the strength of those who wait on Him. The God of the galaxies is the Great Physician who lovingly ministers to our physical, emotional and intellectual needs. Patience is not acceptance of the situation but a consistency in staying steadfast to wait for God without being swayed by the circumstance. Do not cast away your confidence, which has great recompense of reward. Wait on God and he will surely deliver.
2. Trust and Faith – Job 38:1-41, Hebrews 11:3
You might not be weak but going through real pain and suffering and questioning God like Job. Or you may be quick to pass judgment like Job’s friends, quoting even rational facts without understanding the ways of God who is all powerful. God answers Job’s questions and his friend’s misinterpretations of his sufferings by referring to His act of creation. We cannot always understand everything that happens unless by faith in His creative act so we can trust His invisible power and hand at work. Hence Hebrews 11: 3 says “By faith we understand that the worlds we see were created from invisible things”. That is why God calls those things that be not as though they were as applied to Abraham. This is not surprising because when Abraham got discouraged about not having a child, God brought him out to behold his marvelous created stars of the skies (Genesis 15:1-6). When you do not have answers to your questions and troubles you can trust God like Job and if you doubt God and your whole reason for living like Abraham, still trust and believe in God.
3. Praise and worship – Psalm 8: 1-9; Psalm 113:1-9 Psalm 8
Why should we praise Him? Because though He owns the universe and is exalted far above the heavens and the earth, He still identifies with our lowly state, our pain and troubles. If God who lived in eternity was prepared to step into time, create the world and by that interact with mortal man and perishable earth, then he will come down to the point of your needs and pick you up. If you doubt that, just look at the cross and see the thorns, nails, stripes on his back. Our only response can be praise and worship to a creator who does not leave us on our own but shows interest in our affairs because He is a good father and a responsible creator. This earth belongs to God and we make the biggest mistake as Christians when we don’t leave things in the hands of the God who holds everything in perfect order so the sun, moon and earth do not collide.
The following poem from a daily devotional reading in ‘Our Daily Bread’ is encouraging
“The hand that holds the ocean's depths can hold my small affairs; the hand that guides the universe can carry all my cares. Regardless of how heavy your burdens, how tangled your problems, or how serious your disease, the God of the galaxies has power enough to meet all your needs with measureless power to spare. Therefore put your problems in His hands”.
“If you see God’s God's creative hand in everything, you can leave everything in God's creative hand”. God was powerful in creating the world, powerful in sustaining it by the word of His power and still powerful today to uphold you by this same powerful word that can bring healing and deliverance to your soul.
And to go back to the words in Nicole Mullen’s song:
“The very same God that spins things in orbit, runs to the weary, the weak and the worn, and the same gentle that holds me when I’m broken, they conquered death to bring me victory”.
What should be your response?
1. Wait and depend on His faithfulness
2. Trust and have faith in His promises,
3. Praise him in the midst of your storm and troubles.
Like the disciples of Jesus, you can say “who is this man that even the storms obey Him”? Because He is the creator of the universe and holds the whole world in His hands”. We should not forget the chorus we used to sing as children in Sunday School.
“He’s got the whole world in His hands
He’s got the whole wide world, in His hands
He’s got the whole world in His hands
He’s got the whole world in His hands”
Will you allow Him and leave everything in His hands?
