16 Jan 2024

As I grow in my Christian life, and by His grace, learn to know more about God and His being, I begin to understand better who we are and what we are in relation to Him.
Increasingly, the following truths become clearer:
We have nothing and have never had anything that we have not received, nor have we done anything good apart from God who did it through us. In ourselves we are destitute, bankrupt, and impotent, totally dependent on God in every aspect. Even our very breath is from God; as a doctor, I have seen various ones, even those who are highly regarded in society and those who may be seen as successful and holding prestigious positions, struggling to get their next breath when they were very ill and dying.

If we think of ourselves as achievers, innovators, movers and shakers, healers, educators, benefactors of society in any way at all, we are at the deepest level kidding ourselves.

The Bible records for us what happened to King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon, ruler of a great nation during the time of Daniel. He reportedly said, “Is not this the great Babylon I have built as the royal residence, by my mighty power and for the glory of my majesty?” (Daniel 4:30)
Immediately after that, the king was driven away from people and ate grass like the ox. His body was drenched with the dew of heaven until his hair grew like the feathers of an eagle and his nails like the claws of a bird. When he subsequently recovered, by God’s mercy, he wrote: “I, Nebuchadnezzar, raised my eyes towards heaven, and my sanity was restored. Then I praised the most High: “I honoured and glorified him who lives for ever,…” (4:34).

But we may feel that we are different from this king. We may think ourselves to be reasonable Christians; we are not aware of major negative areas in our lives and we even may consider ourselves as rather faithful believers. And then our lives took a drastic turn – calamity after calamity took place – sickness after sickness, in increasing degree of intensity, inflicted us; even our closest relationship and friendship crumbled. And we become depressed, even angry at God and we demand an explanation from God why He has targeted us in this way when we do not deserve it at all. This was the case with Job – a man who was described as ‘righteous’ and pleasing to God.
We know from our reading of Job that when God appeared to Job, He did not answer his queries. Instead God asked him many questions and the answers were obviously pointing to the fact that Job could not even do the simplest act which God does in upholding the universe and taking care of even the minutest detail like providing food for the least of creatures. Job saw that he had no power to control the daily simple and regular happenings in this world after God caused him to see who he was in relation to the Creator.
And Job replied, “My ears had heard of you but now my eyes have seen you. Therefore I despise myself and repent in dust and ashes” (Job 42:5-6).

God is the Sovereign Lord, the Creator, the Almighty and when man and nations are compared to Him, what is the comparison like?

“Who has measured the waters in the hollow of his hand, or with the breadth of his hand marked off the heaven? Who has held the dust of the earth in a basket, or weighed the mountains on the scales and the hills in a balance?….Surely the nations are like a drop in a bucket; they are regarded as dust on the scales; he weighed the islands as though they were fine dust” (Isaih 40:12,13,15).

Sufficient writing is revealed to show the great contrast between God and ourselves. If we not only acknowledge this mentally, but truly ‘assimilate’ this truth in our lives, then like Job, we will learn not to question God and complain that He is unfair and unfaithful. LIke Nebuchadnezzar, we would humble ourselves and prostrate ourselves before Him and give Him the honor and praise even after much suffering and pain on our part. We would not question His wisdom, His goodness, His power and His love.
Most of all, we would learn to worship and to humbly show our gratitude and gratefulness to Him who loves us even though we are unlovable and wretched in our ways before being ‘born again’.