Is Your God Too Small?
J. B. Phillips coined the phrase “Your God Is Too Small” as the title of his famous book, written in 1961. He wrote the book for believers and skeptics. It is well-written, short and concise, an easy read.
He begins the book by outlining 12 false understandings of God, which limit Him to the narrow understanding of many people. In the remainder of the book He writes about GOD in all of His BIGNESS.
The premise of the book is that our image of God was too small to meet the needs of the modern world of 1961.
I was a young kid back in those days. My world extended as far as the local school yard and trips to my grandparents. My world was pretty small and God was awfully big to me.
As I have matured, my interest in the bigness God has dwindled. The designation God is an all consuming concept. God is never a small thing.
People talk about God less and less in today’s world, while their personal gods get bigger and bigger.
In today’s digitalized, techno-driven, fast-paced, information-overload, app-driven world, I need to know God, I need to feel His presence, to be assured that He loves me.
Lois Cheney’s words in her book God Is No Fool resonate in my heart:
It is good, in the magnificent sense to know that God is a friend to humans. I know of no religion in which the God is both God and friend.
We fear because God is all-powerful.
We worship because God is all goodness.
We bow in humility because God is all master.
We serve because God is all-purposeful.
But perhaps the most significant thing of all is that
We love, because God is a friend forever. (1)
If you do not know God as your friend, then your God is too small.
Jesus said, “No longer do I call you servants … I now call you my friends.” (John 15:15)
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Cheney, Lois A. (2005-03-01). God is No Fool (pp. 83-84). Autism Today. Kindle Edition.