God is Still Great

“When I heard these things I sat down and wept . . . then I said: “O Lord, God of heaven, the great and awesome God . . . let your ear be attentive and your eyes open to hear the prayer your servant is praying before you day and night . . .” (Nehemiah 1:4-5)

“God is great, God is good.” For many of us, these were the first words of prayer we ever learned. Before we could adequately pronounce those simple words, and long before we could ever grasp the meaning of what we were saying, we learned to fold our hands and affirm the goodness and greatness of God.

And then we got older. As we got older life happened, and those happenings sometimes challenged the words of that prayer. Sure, we may still teach the words to our children, but silently we have some objections – or at least some questions. We’ve seen things, or experienced things, or learned some things that make us wonder about the goodness and greatness of God.

Those six little words we learned as toddlers are joined by a maturing vocabulary: death and divorce, breakups and bankruptcy, I.E.Ds and M.I.As. The list is long. Our sentences become more complicated, the verbs more harsh and the adjectives more grim. We begin to wonder about the greatness of God. In our wondering we come across a book title that bluntly rejects what we’ve always believed, or tried to believe – “God is Not Great” sneers at us from the cover of Christopher Hitchens’s recent volume. Part of us resents the book, and part of us wonders.

After learning of the wretched conditions in Jerusalem, Nehemiah prays. The opening words of the prayer are remarkable, stunning even. In his grief and anguish over Jerusalem we might excuse Nehemiah for railing against God. The NIV bible uses an English word to describe the state of the city: “disgraced.” Grace removed, undone, taken away. Jerusalem is dis-graced, and when grace is nullified God’s character may likely be vilified. But that’s not what we get from Nehemiah. Instead, what we hear from this heartbroken man is the kind of thing that flows naturally from the lips of children. God is great. Great and awesome.

We might think of Nehemiah as a “visionary” because he was able to see what the walls of Jerusalem could become. Not so. Nehemiah was a visionary because he saw the true character of God: great and awesome. Once he grasped the reality of God he began to see what God wanted for the city.

You may find yourself in your own season of mourning and weeping. Something you care deeply about is damaged; it seems that grace is absent. The good news this morning is that God is still great. Don’t simply ask God to fix a situation. Ask for a restored vision of who God is; the kind of vision you might have had a long time ago when you learned the words of that simple prayer. The prayer words you learned when you could barely talk may be the prayer you need to pray today. Learn from Nehemiah. There is a foundational truth that will not be changed by bad news and dis-grace. God is still great.

Prayer:
Great and awesome God, when I look at the trouble and devastation of the world around me I get things backwards. You seem distant and small. The problems of the world seem enormous. Help me to see things rightly. Restore to me a vision of your great power and love, reminding me that the whole world is held in your mighty and tender hand. Amen.