Oh, the depth of the riches and wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable are his judgments and how inscrutable his ways!
—Romans 11:33
I remember back when I had just graduated from seminary, fresh and full of confidence. I thought I knew just about everything. I could have told you the meaning of the fourth toe on the left foot of the beast in the book of Daniel! But the longer I served the Lord, the longer I preached and studied, the more my heart and mind opened to a humbling realization: I was only a single drop in the vast ocean of the knowledge of God.
That’s exactly where Paul lands at the end of these towering chapters on God’s sovereignty. After wrestling with election, mercy, and the mysteries of God’s dealings, he doesn’t tie it up in a neat bow. He bursts into worship: “Oh, the depth of the riches and wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable are his judgments and how inscrutable his ways!” When you come to the edge of what you can understand about God, the right response isn’t frustration, it’s awe.
Notice that word “unsearchable.” God’s judgments and ways are beyond our tracing out, beyond the reach of our little minds. And that ought to bring us not despair but relief. If you could fully figure God out, He wouldn’t be much of a God.
Here’s what concerns me, though. I believe one reason so many Christians are weak and powerless in the world, one reason most have never once shared their faith, is that they’ve lost sight of the unsearchable greatness of God. Have we quietly pushed His greatness aside in our minds so that we won’t come across as strange or out of touch to the people around us?
When you really grasp the vastness of God, it changes you. It makes you bold, because the One who is for you is greater than anything against you. It makes you humble, because you realize how little you truly comprehend. And it loosens your grip on comfort, because no convenience is worth more than declaring a God this magnificent to a world that doesn’t know Him.
So, start living today in light of that reality. Stop shrinking Him to fit your comfort zone. Put your convenience second and His greatness first, and let the world see, through your boldness and your worship, just how big He really is.
GOD IS GREATER THAN ANYTHING YOU COULD IMAGINE, PUT YOUR COMFORT SECOND AND HIS GREATNESS FIRST.
