How Great Is Our God?

I think I may have concluded the greatest sin that Christians commit. OK, maybe not, but it is a big one. It’s huge. And it has to be at least one of the biggest. Ironically, it’s pettiness.

We exalt in how great our God is and then we are unwilling to let go even of the smallest of offenses committed against us! We are like the Pharisees who strained out the gnat but swallowed the camel. We are like the wicked servant in Jesus’ parable (Matthew 18) whose banker forgave him an impossible debt and what does he do? He turns right around and grabs some poor guy who owes him a pittance; a mere paltry sum, and tries to choke it out of him.(literally)

How incredible it is that we who worship an infinite God can be so incredibly mean. How great is our God, and yet our lives can be characterized by such smallness.

Jesus said, “Whoever believes in me, as the Scripture has said, streams of living water will flow from within him.” God has poured out His Spirit upon us (Acts 2) and has ‘poured out His love into our hearts by the Holy Spirit, whom He has given us’ (Rom 5:5); our ‘cup overflows’ (Psa 23), and yet we become misers of mercy. God’s grace abounds while we offer crumbs. Where is our greatness? Where is our goodness? Where is our generous spirit?

If we only knew. I have often thought about the connection between being miserly and being miserable because the truth is that when we withhold grace and mercy and forgiveness we actually are the ones who lose more than anyone else.

Yep, I think that pettiness is one of our very biggest sins because it so misrepresents the great heart of God. Pettiness? We REALLY should be bigger than that.