The Uniqueness of our God

"You alone are the Lord.  You have made the heavens, the heaven of heavens with all their host, the earth and all that is on it, the seas and all that is in them. You give life to all of them and the heavenly host bows down before You."  Nehemiah 9:6

At White Lake Baptist Church we started the year on Sunday and have made this our theme verse for the year.  I love how the verse starts - "You alone are the Lord."  It was the subject of the first sermon of the year, on a day that was filled with joy due to the start of the new year and to the fact that we had the privilege of baptizing four young ladies into our membership!  It was indeed a good day.  The more that I dwelt upon the happenings of that day, the more I reflected on the text of Nehemiah 9:6, the more I was drawn into an appreciation for how truly awesome God is.

Have you ever considered the singular uniqueness of our God?  When Nehemiah records that He alone is Lord, he is stating that there is none like God - none who should compete for our worship, none who can compete for the position of Master and Ruler over our lives.  There is no one like our God.  There is no one or nothing on the face of the planet that can claim that it has no beginning  - but our God can.  There is no one or nothing else in all of creation that balances love and justice in such a glorious way as to send your own Son to fulfill the obligations of the Law for those who place their faith and trust in Christ.  There is no one or nothing else anywhere that will love you with the kind of unending love that God has given us in Christ.  There is no one or nothing else in all creation that makes the kinds of promises that God makes to us. 

Our God is unique!

He has no earthly rivals.  There is no other supposed deity who has demonstrated the consistency and constancy that our God has.  None other who has chosen to make himself known to us in the way that our God has.  None who has chosen to love us without demanding that we change our behavior before we come to him.  No, instead God tells us that we cannot change our behavior apart from His grace. That we can know Him because of His Word.  And that He can love us with consistency and constancy because of the work of our Lord Jesus Christ. 

Our God is unique!

But what is perhaps most interesting is that for Nehemiah, the uniqueness of our God is not sufficient.  It is not enough for him that we give intellectual assent to how great our God is.  It is not enough that we acknowledge God as being so awesome.  Nehemiah states instead, "You alone are the Lord."  The kind of uniqueness and awesomeness that our God possesses demands our attention and obedience.  His singularity calls us into submission.  For if God is as awesome as He truly is, then we recognize with a great deal of speed how "un-awesome" and "un-great" we are. 

May 2016 be for us a year filled with the blessing of God as we submit ourselves to His Lordship.  As we commit to acknowledging His grandeur and our insufficiency apart from His work in our lives.  As we obey may we experience the fullness of the joy and blessing that He has to offer.  And may we with Nehemiah say this year, "You alone are the Lord."