Daily Devotional

This verse is often called “the Shema, it's a prayer and declaration of faith, proclaiming the oneness of God and our obligation to love Him. It was recited to affirm who God is that Israel would not forget.

I recently saw a Tic-tok video in which a group of people who profess to believe in God were asked whether they believed Satan to be evil. Only one man stepped forward in agreement while the others quietly smirked and hung back. The man gave a short defense for his view stating that God placed Adam and Eve in a perfect garden, gave them all they needed, but Satan deceived them and convinced them to disobey God for their own selfish desires.

The rest of the group, while he was talking, made little comments about what he was saying, such as He (God) left them naked and ignorant in the garden. They then went on to defend Satan with statements such as, “Satan was promoting equality,” or “God was a tyrant,” or even that “Satan was basically standing up to a bully.” It occurred to me that many have forgotten who God is.

What struck me as interesting here was that these people were second guessing God, they were pretty confident that they knew better, they had better understanding were more fair and just… then God. Let that sink in. Talk about a low view of God. If the creation is greater than the creator then that is not God.

We read throughout scripture that God has some special attributes that make Him God, that we really can't fully comprehend. He is omnipotent or all powerful, He is omniscient or all knowing, and He is omnipresent or everywhere. Additionally He is holy and righteous. So how is it that we, who are mortal, finite, weak, and sinful can question any of His ways? Sin and evil are quite literally defined as being the opposite of God and His standard, because He is the standard. Anything that contradicts God is then sin and evil.

Now due to our lack of comprehensive abilities compared to an infinite God, things may seem backwards, or unfair, or unjust, but just because it seems that way to a creature with limited perspective, doesn't mean that it is that way when viewed from God's infinite perspective. Our place as the creation is to worship, love, and obey God, not to command or instruct God. Can you see how easy it is to lose perspective on God when we forget who God truly is?

If the God you are worshipping is finite, fallible, and fickle, you might as well just worship any human, animal, or inanimate object. The God of the universe is so much bigger, wiser, powerful, knowledgeable, loving, and merciful than you could possibly imagine. The next time you think you may know better than God, try and remember how much bigger than you God is. A proper perspective of God is so important to understand our relationship to Him. Praise God that He is so much bigger than we could imagine or what hope would there be for us in the midst of our problems.

New King James Version (NKJV)
Scripture taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved.