Mighty & MercifulSample

Help for the helpless

READ ROMANS 8

We can have distorted ideas of God. Some, wanting to emphasise His majesty and might, may picture Him as a cosmic CEO. A figure who paces His heavenly office, impatiently tapping His feet, irritated by the failure of His human creation to do His will. Or perhaps He is a formidable person sitting behind a vast desk, scowling with pursed lips. He becomes the ultimate micro manager, the God of the grinding demand. The God who wields great power in creating and sustaining the universe, but who is utterly frustrated by weak human beings. Or He can be seen as a wishy-washy sort of old man, wringing His hands at His inability to do much about the world He made.

But all this is false imagining. It is true that our God is mighty and not a frail weakling. It is also true that His might does not prevent Him from being merciful. The cross is the supreme example of this. But He shows mercy in other ways as well. Take prayer as an example. We so often don’t know what to pray. And yet even though our words might fail, our prayers need not. God does not demand we get our words just right: He doesn’t even mind if we don’t use words. He is not insistent on correct logic or even precise theological orthodoxy.

Whenever we pray, we’re expressing our weakness, our helpless dependence on God. And this mighty God does not despise our weakness but works through it. He gives shape to our shapeless prayers. His help best comes to the helpless.

Written by DAVID REAY