God’s Power on Display

Welcome to today's devotion from Our Daily Bread. I'm Daniel Ryan Day and I want to share with you how God met me through His creation in an experience I titled, God's Power on Display. It was a lightning storm and my six-year-old daughter and I were on the floor watching the dazzling display through the glass door. She kept repeating, wow, God is so big.

I felt the same way. It was obvious to both of us how small we were and how powerful God must be. Lines from the book of Job flashed through my mind.

What is the way to the place where the lightning is dispersed or the place where the east winds are scattered over the earth? Job needed to be reminded of God's power. His life had fallen apart. His children were dead. He was broke. He was sick.

His friends offered no empathy. His wife encouraged him to abandon his faith. Eventually, Job asked God, why? And God responded out of a storm.

In chapter 42, God reminded Job of his control over the physical attributes of the world. This comforted him and he responded, My ears had heard of you, but now my eyes have seen you. In other words, now I get it, God.

I see that you don't fit into my box. When life falls apart, sometimes the most comforting thing we can do is to lie on the floor and watch the lightning. To be reminded that the God who created the world is big enough and loving enough to take care of us too.

We may even start singing our favorite worship songs that tell of the might and greatness of our God. I'd like to share with you the passage of scripture from where that verse that I just mentioned came from. This is Job chapter 38 verses 24 through 38. What is the way to the place where the lightning is dispersed or the place where the east winds are scattered over the earth? Who cuts a channel for the torrents of rain and a path for the thunderstorm? To water a land where no one lives, an uninhabited desert.

To satisfy a desolate wasteland and make it sprout with grass. Does the rain have a father? Who fathers the drops of dew? From whose womb comes the ice? Who gives birth to the frost from the heavens when the waters become hard as stone, when the surface of the deep is frozen? Can you bind the chains of the Pleiades?

Can you loosen Orion's belt? Can you bring forth the constellations in their seasons or lead out the bear with its cubs? Do you know the laws of the heavens?

Can you set up God's dominion over the earth? Can you raise your voice to the clouds and cover yourself with a flood of water? Do you send the lightning bolts on their way?

Do they report to you, here we are? Who gives the Ibis wisdom or gives the rooster understanding? Who has the wisdom to count the clouds? Who can tip over the water jars of the heavens when the dust becomes hard and the clods of earth stick together? Pray with me. God, help us to see how big you are and help us to stop trying to fit you into our really small boxes. Help us to trust that you are big enough to create and control the lightning and because of that you are also big enough to help us through all of life's challenges. Thank you, Lord. In the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit we pray. Amen.