“Why are you cast down, O my soul, and why are you in turmoil within me? Hope in God; for I shall again praise Him, my salvation and my God.” –Psalm 42:5

The Cosmos is undeniable testimony to the power of God. The God of scripture and creation brought the entire universe into existence ex nihilo - - out of nothing.

Elaine and I were reading together, one morning, the Daily Bread, a devotional booklet, and we came across this piece of mind-dazzling data:

The Sun around which the Earth orbits is one of perhaps 400 billion stars in the Milky Way, which is a piddling galaxy next door to nothing much. There are perhaps 40 billion galaxies in the still-unfolding universe. If all the stars in the universe were only the size of the head of a pin they would fill Miami’s Orange Bowl Stadium to overflowing more than 3 billion times.

That God! Yes, that God. That God who holds this universe together is the God who holds me in His hands of hope.

Our God put all those stars out there. In the book of Job, Job declares:

“He spreads out the northern skies over empty space; he suspends the earth over nothing . . .”

Then he says, “And these are but the outer fringe of his works; how faint the whisper we hear of him! Who then can understand the thunder of his power?”

I think to myself, if all we can see in the creation is a product of God’s whisper, what would happen if God ROARED?”

God -- wild. God -- unconquerable, untamable. God--Almighty. God -- all-powerful.

God is omnipotent. And what that means is that He holds all power over His creation. No part of creation stands outside the scope of His sovereign reign.

God has what no other being has and that is an inexhaustible reservoir of power. We can expend our energy. We need to eat, and rest, and refuel. We expend ourselves and we exhaust ourselves. God gives and never runs out of energy or resources. He never has to replenish Himself in anyway.

In his hopeless despair the Psalmist turns to the only one who can really rescue him from the deep pit and dark mood he has found himself in. God -- the Living God. The God of all hope and the God of all comfort; He is the One we run to when depression and despair come knocking on our door.

What does all of this have to do with depression and despair? Well, it prompts us to ask the question of how big is your God? When our problems are big and our God is small we will feel outnumbered and over-whelmed and depressed.

God is bigger though than any problem, or enemy, or issue that my stand in front of me. My hope and my future rest in the hands of a very large and invincible God.

I am deeply convinced that the way we live is a consequence of the size of our God and the problem that most of us have is our God is too small. We are not convinced that we are absolutely safe in the hands of a fully competent, all-knowing, ever-present, utterly loving God who large enough and powerful enough to be my hope.

If I wake up in the morning and I go through the day with a shrunken God, there are consequences. I will live in a constant state of fear and anxiety because everything depends on me and my movements throughout the day will be governed by whatever circumstances hit me that day.

When I have a need, if uncertainty assails my heart, if I live with a shrunken God, I will find it unnatural to pray because I’m not really sure, to be honest, that God will make a difference and that prayer really matters.

But if our God is large enough and powerful enough to speak the world into existence and hold the universe in his strong right hand, then He can speak to my chaos and bring order. He can hold me in His strong right hand when I am depressed and bring me His joy and light. Yes He can!!