Is Your God Too Small?

Renowned theologian and Bible translator J. B. Phillips once wrote, “Your God is too small.”

You may naturally ask, “How do I know if my God is too small?” Great question! Let me turn the question back to you: Do you think your God is big enough? Consider the following. In John 14:27, Jesus promised us His peace—a “peace of mind and heart.” In Galatians 5:22, Paul said the fruit of the Spirit is “love, joy, peace…” Is peace of mind and heart your daily, moment-by-moment experience? If not, then either Jesus and Paul lied or you missed something. Which do you think it is? Here is the bottom line: peace is the result of trust. Trust is a result of how you view God.

Truthfully, none of us can completely grasp the width, depth, complexity, or immensity of any part of God’s nature. But if we merely have a small, human-centered view of God, we limit ourselves to only what we can accomplish through our self-efforts. Or we may think that He is just a little more intelligent, powerful, or wise than we are. Such inadequate views of God rob us of an intimate life-changing relationship with our awe-inspiring Creator.

God has given us minds that can see farther than our own human limitations. For example, we can discover the intricacies of the DNA molecule, which no one has ever seen. We can study about places we have never visited, such as the underwater world of deep-sea creatures. We use cell phones with the knowledge that the signals may be coming to us from as far away as telecommunication satellites orbiting in space. These concepts extend our thinking beyond what we can observe with our eyes. Let us put aside our tendency to be superficial in our understanding of God and stretch our minds to get a clearer idea of His magnificent nature.

One important principle about God’s nature is that all the attributes of God are interactive and completely interrelated. With our human limitations, we dissect God’s nature into parts or attributes so we can understand them, but that is not how they exist in God’s character. Each attribute is perfectly complete and fully a part of God’s personality. As we study these attributes, keep in mind that if we exalt one of God’s qualities over another, we can get a distorted view of God’s character. In fact, overemphasizing any one of God’s attributes to the exclusion of others can lead to heresy. For example, teaching only about God’s mercy and neglecting His role as a judge will prevent people from understanding God’s hatred of sin and the future punishment for wrongdoing. Therefore, as we study each quality individually, we must remember that it is only one aspect of God’s magnificent nature.

Since God’s attributes are so interlinked, we cannot understand one without the others. God’s attributes relate to each other; they are all part of the whole of God’s nature.

By Bill Bright

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