OUR GOD IS A GREAT GOD.
By W. S. Ritchie
WE ought to expect great things from the strength that is in Jesus, our risen Lord. We ought not to be surprised when we receive great things and do mighty works. We should take them as a matter of course, and not be astonished and bewildered when they occur. Such a course shows very small faith when we are astonished because God does wonderful things in answer to our prayers. Nor should we look upon those who exercise strong faith as doing some remarkable thing. They do nothing extraordinary that requires a great strain upon them to perform. They act a far more natural or normal part than those who exercise less faith. They are not on a strain, but the strain is on those who do not exercise faith. They are the ones who are carrying the heavy load. God's word says, "Cast thy burden upon the Lord, and he shall sustain thee." If we really believed that God has the power to create, is all wise, and that he loves man, it would be impracticable to conceive of any circumstances where we might reasonably become discouraged. There can be no such thing as discouragement, no matter what the circumstances are, to him who really believes these three things. How unreasonable it would be for one who says that he believes his God is the only one who can create from nothing, and that He loves him with wonderful love, to become discouraged! No matter what the circumstances might be, such a one could not be daunted in the least if he really believed. The Bible throughout is an exhortation to believe. All the failures recorded in it have come through the one source of unbelief. It is not a hard thing to believe. That is, we do not need to go to great scholars or institutions of learning and ask them to show us how to believe. We do not even need to go from our own door. Anyone may look at the solid earth, and the trees and animals growing upon it, and ask how these things came to be536in existence. Though all the people in the world should say that wrong was right, it would not make it so, and should all agree that the world was never created at all, yet there it is to speak for itself. Someone must have made it. Then when we are told that the true God made it simply by his word, we are led to see that it never could have been made in any other way. Can anyone conceive of material being made in any other way than by speaking it into existence? Some are so foolish as to think it helps the problem somewhat to say that the world was a long time in growing, or evolving. But when a thing grows, it must have something to feed on, and who made the material from which the world grew? There is no way to avoid the conclusion that the world was made by someone. There is a wondrous display of power and love by someone, and it is a very simple and easy act of faith to believe that this One is the true God, of which we have all heard. And, having believed that he created the earth and the planets and stars also, it is a very simple and easy matter to trust him with our little difficulties and trials of this life. Truly they are not worthy of mention, and are only allowed that we may be brought to believe in God.