How big is God? Let me share this story of a little boy’s interaction with his father. Let’s go!
A little boy once asked his father this question:
‘Daddy, how big is God?’
His father chuckled out loud and said, ‘God is very enormous.’
‘How big, I want to know.’
‘Well, how big is God…’ the father thought about it for a while.
Just then an airplane cruised in the sky, the father got an idea. ‘Come to the window, son.’ The boy scooted over to his father.
‘Look at the sky,’ he pointed to the clouds. ‘What’s that in the sky?’
‘It’s an aeroplane. It doesn’t look any big. It’s tiny.’
‘Sure it is.’ He stood up. ‘Have you ever seen an aeroplane on the ground?’
The boy shook his head.
‘Well, let’s go to the airport.’
At the airport, the boy couldn’t believe his eyes when he saw the aeroplanes.
‘They are big! he exclaimed. ‘I never imagined they would be like this.’
‘Son, this is how God can be. From afar, He may look small but when you move closer to Him, He gets this big.’
God gets bigger and bigger the closer you get to Him. He doesn’t create the distance. In fact, He removed the distance when Jesus died on the cross.
You can only get to experience His bigness when you spend more and more time with Him and His Word.
Just like the aeroplane in the sky that looks tiny, God will look tiny to you when there’s no regular fellowship with Him. He looks just like a spot of white in the clouds, making you to squint and cover your eyes before you can look at Him.
But when you are near Him, you don’t have to squint or protect your eyes, rather, your eyes might want to pop out of their sockets as you marvel at how enormous He is. God is really big.
God can only be big in your life based on how much of your time you give to Him.
Prayer: Yahweh, You are bigger than anything, anyone and everything on this earth. I want to keep marveling at such a spectacle as You. Give me more revelation of how big You are as I walk with You. In Jesus’ name, amen.
Action plan: How big you want God to be to you? Answer the question yourself.
We have been looking at how to handle anger as a child. Anger has been looked at from different angles and the ways to respond to it.
As a child you will have feelings of anger up to when you become an adult. Even in adulthood you will still get angry with people and situations. Anger is common to all persons. The earlier you start learning how to handle this emotion, the better for you. As you mature into adulthood you would have learnt a lot about handling any anger issues.
To handle anger, you need the help of God. He alone has the power to help you deal with any anger issues. He can guide and lead you towards handling it well.
Read and study the bible for verses that talk on anger and how to handle it. Also read up stories of bible characters who had anger issues and show they handled it, either good or bad. You could read again about the times when God got angry in the bible.
Pray too and a lot if you find yourself with any anger issue. Prayer is like a personal time with God. And during this personal time , you don’t hide nothing from Him. You tell Him everything you feel, especially about your anger. It is in moments like this that you receive the strength to handle anger.
One last thought about anger – anger is not bad, it’s only what it makes you do, think or say that is bad. And anger that is left to stay for long can turn to hate and bitterness. You therefore must learn to handle anger.
May the Lord deliver you from every form of anger, hate and bitterness. Amen.
Prayer: Lord, I ask for help for every form of anger I have; teach me how to handle it LORD. Let it not lead to hatred or bitterness. In Jesus’ name I pray, amen.
Action point: Look deep inside your heart, look for any anger that has turned to hatred or bitterness and ask God for forgiveness. After asking for forgiveness, ask God to help you handle all your anger issues. Read and study your bible too.
‘I choose to forgive you for the bad words you have said to me.’ These were the words Tatiana said to Mercy before she turned away and started walking home.
Earlier that day, Mercy and her gang of bullies had done all they could to get Tatiana to lose her cool and start a fight. From spreading gossip about John and her kissing under the stairs during recess, to purposely pouring water on her. Can she forgive?
Tatiana didn’t lose her temper because she knew what they were trying to do. And she had made a vow to God that she wouldn’t answer back at Mercy. Her vow to Him was more important than anything the bully gang did or said. What mattered most was her vow to and relationship with God. And that was one of the reasons she found strength to forgive.
So instead of speaking or fighting back, choose to render forgiveness. You could say “I forgive you”, to the person’s face or in your heart. Not because you are afraid of them, but because that is what God wants you to do.
Remember the part in our Lord’s Prayer that talks about forgiving those who trespass against us? (“and forgive us our sins, as we have forgiven those who sin against us.” – Matthew 6:12). That is exactly what how God wants you to live. That is exactly what God desires you do when your friends annoy you – ignore them and forgive.
I pray that God will give you the power to choose to forgive. In Jesus’ name, Amen.
Prayer: Father, help me to choose forgiveness over retaliation. And as I render forgive, may I receive forgiveness too, in Jesus’ name. Amen.
Action Plan: Practice forgiveness all the time. Practice to just let go.
A wide and pleasant smile plastered over Tade’s face as he collected the bowl of food from the food seller at the school’s canteen. He couldn’t hold back the urge to pick a piece of meat and slide it into his mouth. But anger was lurking somewhere in the corner!
He had hardly taken two bites when someone crashed into him, sending both him and the plate of food to the ground. To make matters worse, his uniform was soiled with oil.
His eyes went from the food on the floor to the culprit standing over him. He heard the whole canteen go up in laughter as he focused on Yinka, his anger rising.
‘Why did you push me?’ he asked Yinka. Yinka chuckled and shrugged his shoulders. Tade saw this and just like all the other times like this, he knew Yinka would never apologize. This fueled his anger the more. ‘That was my lunch.’ ‘So?’ Yinka said, daring Tade to do his worst.
Tade bolted up in a flash and smacked Yinka straight in the face, followed by punches in the stomach and a powerful one to the jaw. Yinka staggered back, tasted the blood in his mouth, and spat out a tooth. Anger now ruled in the boys. Instantly Yinka responded with his own punches and the fight began.
At the end of the day, both boys were sitting in the Principal’s office with oil-stained uniforms, swollen faces, missing teeth, painful torsos, and no lunch.
Getting angry and acting out the anger, just like what happened in the story above, is why you shouldn’t let your anger control you. Tade got angry at what Yinka had done and attacked him, leading Yinka to act out his anger also. In the end, both boys had lost a lot.
When you hit back at someone, you likely will do so more than they hit back at you. And the person will also hit back at you more than you did. The cycle continues like that till it escalates to a point when both of you would have lost so much at the end. That is how anger cycles.
May God grant you the grace to hold back your anger. Amen.
Prayer: Lord, give me the grace to not be angry and act out my anger. Help me to keep my cool. Amen.
Action point: Pray that God will help you handle your anger well.
Your actions are important in dealing with anger. Jesus told the disciples to go into the world and share the Good News with all people.
“And he said unto them, Go ye into all the world, and preach the gospel to all creature.” Mark 16:15 KJV
This command is carried out by Christians through evangelism. They move from one place to another telling people about Christ. Now, with the internet all over the place, evangelism has moved from physically moving about to just pressing a button to disseminate a message worldwide. What this means is that your actions are not just about you; they are also about Christ.
Imagine someone says something nasty to you and quickly, you reply to them with much the same words or actions they meted out to you. What if the other person isn’t a Christian? Or a baby Christian? How do you think they will think of you?
“Oh, and he is a Christian.” “He says he is born-again; look at his actions.” “His parents are pastors.” “He is a member of the choir.”
These are some of the thoughts that would cross their minds. These thoughts are judging you (your actions) as a Christian, because you are supposed to show Christ in your actions. Yes, people will push you to do or say things you wouldn’t do normally, but you still have to remember that you are a light that points others to Christ. Your actions matter!
May you receive the strength to hold back and let Christ be revealed through you. Amen.
Before you respond in anger again, remember that your actions matter… and that you are representing God on earth. I pray that your actions will always show forth Christ.
Prayer: Lord, Jesus, make me a continual light guiding people to you. Help me to resist the urge to lash out in anger. Help me to take charge of my actions. In your mighty name, I pray, amen.
Action point: Pray and meditate on bible verses that show how to tame your tongue.
