The Incomparable God: Part Two

Rehearsing the Greatness of the Incomparable God 

I couldn’t believe it. I had lost the diamond in my wedding ring, yet again. Yet this time, not only was my diamond missing, but the entire setting! After getting over my deep dismay I cried out to God.

“God, you care about the smallest things that concern me. You see my diamond right now. Please, help me find it!” 

The Incomparable God is intimately acquainted with me 

The Incomparable God is intimately acquainted with His creation. He cares about what we are concerned about. I have been able to rediscover this truth, time and time again.

• In the course of three days, my entire body had gone numb. As I was rushed to the emergency room, I feared the worse. “God, I’m scared! What’s happening to me?”
• Depression had been my constant companion for the past twelve months. “God, I don’t know how to do another day; please help me to see your face even in this mental darkness!”

The Incomparable God desires for our hearts to cry out to Him with what troubles us. He desires to hear our worries, have us voice our anxiety, and acknowledge that he is the One who can help us work through each struggle.

As a parent there have been times that I wished my name wasn’t Mom. I often grew weary from sleepless nights, questions I didn’t know how to answer or situations that I felt unprepared or incapable to handle.

The Incomparable God does not grow weary of us running to Him with our concerns. In fact he loves for his children to come to him with what they need.

Not only does he not take a cat-nap, or close His eyes to what is going on in the world or in my life; but He never slumbers or sleeps. He is always ready to watch over me and to direct me in the best way I should go.

I have had much anticipation at entering a new ministry vocation. What can begin as excitement can easily turn to anxiety; but when I remember that The Incomparable God is the One who created the stars and knows each of them, calling them by name. How much more will He who knows me, intimately call me to look to Him for comfort, strength and wisdom with something He has called me to do.

God, you count the stars and you call them by name. (Psalm 137:4) Thank you that you are an intimate God. You care about what concerns me! Nothing is too small for you to take notice of.

Not only is God intimate with the galactic universe; but He knows when I sit and when I stand, he knows when I walk upon my way. He is intimate with all my ways and knows just what I need and when I need it.

I will never be able to know God to His full extent because He is inscrutable. His ways are past finding out. Nothing compares with Him! Yet, this one truth alone should change the way I think and live.

O LORD, you have examined my heart and know everything about me. You know when I sit down or stand up. You know my thoughts even when I’m far away. You see me when I travel and when I rest at home. You know everything I do. Psalm 139 :1-3 (NLT)

There is NONE Like God!

We cannot compare our God to anything that we understand as humans, and yet, we must depend on Him for everything! Our reasoning is imperfect. Our wisdom is deficient, our strength wavers and how often do we move forward with uncertainty and lack of clarity.

God is way beyond all that we could ever imagine and even in His Incomparable greatness he stoops to love us intimately, guide us purely, forgive us freely and care for us with His loving eyes upon us.

He forgives our sins, not treating us as we deserve. He is ever faithful to forgive; not holding our offenses against us. He loves unconditionally; not manipulating or cajoling me to pay for my wrongs.

The Incomparable God knows me and what I need!

As my husband and I began to see God lead us away from a ministry that we had been involved with for nearly thirty years, we stood amazed to see Him open the door for an entirely new vocation.

As I have traced the hand of God in the past months and seen Him withdraw us from this ministry, and place us in the pastorate of a rural local church; I am realizing more than ever how I need to stay close to the beauty – of resting in the arms of the Incomparable God. For it is here, that I need not lean upon my own understanding; but look earnestly towards Him to make His name great in situations that are so easily out of my grasp and control.

• Just weeks before leaving our overseas ministry and stepping into a new vocation, my entire body had gone numb in the course of three days time. Even after intense medical testing I had no answer to this physical dilemma. It still remains a mystery; but I can rest in the truth that the Incomparable God knows me! He is intimately acquainted with me. That is a truth I can fully rest in and find hope.
• My last year overseas was filled with dark, depressing days. I didn’t know what had come over me or why it had invaded my life. A visit to the doctor revealed that I had been taking a medication whose side-effect was depression. In just two weeks from the withdraw of this medication the depression was gone!

If I acknowledge that God is BIG enough, then I need to tap into His Incomparable power! For it is God, who gives strength to the weary and power to those who lack might.

Look to the Incomparable God

I’m lacking in might right now! How about you?

Are you trying desperately to derive ways to solve hard situations in your life? Are you looking to your limited, human strength to get you through a difficult, seemingly impossible circumstance? Are you feeling defeated, depressed or bewildered at what is standing before you today; not seeing any way out of your problem? Are you at a lack for wisdom and resources to solve it? Are you fretting decisions that others have made; decisions that you know will impact you and them for the future; yet you are helpless to change their choices?

I urge you to look to the Incomparable God. His ways are past finding out. Remember that we are the created and He, is the Creator. He loves us perfectly. He knows us intimately. He remembers that we are but dust. He knows what we need and when we need it. He is our strength and our place of refuge and hope. He is BIG enough for whatever we have going on in our lives today that have caused us concern, distress, sorrow or depletion.

May each of us call on the Incomparable God. For it is in His presence that we will be filled with strength. And the strength that He provides is pure and peaceable. It is enough; because Jesus is always enough!

Pray to the Incomparable God

I don’t know why it has taken me so long to admit that I am not God’s equal, nor will I ever be! He is high above the heavens and His immense love reaches me! Yet how often do I act as if I am the one who knows the way to solve a certain problem or control a situation with my man-made solutions? Why am I so quick to trust myself and so slow to know that the only way forward is to trust God?

As I have realized anew that nothing compares with God, I have had to come before God admitting that He is all, He knows all, and I need to wait on His timing for the unsolvable to be smoothed before me. My coming to God has led me to pray anew. To remind myself of who I am, and who God is. This leads me to adore God and rely on Him solely, instead of relying on man or myself to solve what seems like the unsolvable.

• God’s eyes saw what I couldn’t. The next day after losing my diamond, I got a call from the manager of the store that I had been in the day before. One of the workers had heard of my loss and before her morning shift, she searched through the women’s dressing room one more time. It was here on her  hands and knees that her eyes feel upon my diamond and setting. I knew that God understood the sentiment and value of my diamond setting and I knew that He was the only one who could lead me or someone else to find it.  How amazing that The Incomparable God cares about what concerned me!

I am still not sure why my body had gone numb in three days’ time; but I do know that The Incomparable God is intimately acquainted with my body. After all, He is Creator God! He is not an absent God; but greatly involved in our lives. As I seek to find answers, I know that God will either lead me to the definitive answer or give me the strength to rest in His abiding, eternal love as I seek to know how to handle this physical concern.

Spiritual Reflection

How about you…

• What concerns are you carrying today?
• What losses have left you feeling defeated, depleted or maybe even depressed?
• Where do you need God to show up, in your life today?

As you take time to recognize the places of depletion and void in your life, are you willing to stop looking at yourself for strength and wisdom? I encourage you to take time right now to voice the following prayer response to God. Knowing that even though you feel deficient – God has this! After all, He is the One who holds you in the palm of His hand and He calls you by name. You are His and He is The Incomparable God.

Prayer Response

God, I come to you today because you are The Incomparable God. I trust you to see all my needs and meet my concerns with compassion and wisdom. I am thankful that I can come freely to you and trust you fully. There is nothing that compares with you!

You are so great, Lord, and worthy of my praise. No one can measure your greatness. You are greatly to be praised; your greatness is unsearchable.

I am recognizing that my human thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways. I acknowledge that, for as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are your ways higher than my ways and your thoughts better than my thoughts.

Thank you, God, that you know me and are intimately acquainted with all my behaviors. You know everything about me.

God, help me to remember to look to you, and not try to solve my own problems. Teach me to take my concerns to you and stop trying to solve them in my own human wisdom. May I rest and wait upon you for all that I need and all that troubles my heart. Help me to not lean on my own understanding, but to acknowledge you to direct my path and to lead me in the right and perfect way I should go.

I praise you Lord, for you are great, your power is absolute. Your understanding is beyond comprehension!

In Jesus Incomparable Name, Amen.

(Prayer response is taken from the following scriptures: Psalm 145:3; Romans 11:33-34; Psalm 139:6, 17-18; Psalm 139:1-6; Psalm 147:5; Isaiah 55:8-9; Isaiah 57:15; 1 Cor. 2:10-11)

Oh, the depth of the riches and wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable are your judgments and how inscrutable your ways! ” Romans 11:33

LINDA JANE DINGELDEIN: DIFFERENT BY DESIGN

PHOTOGRAPHY BY LINDA JANE DINGELDEIN

LOOK UP…THE HEAVENS DECLARE THE GLORY OF THE INCOMPARABLE GOD!