Is He Only the God of the Hills? (Part 3)

.
And there came a man of God, and spoke unto the king of Israel, and said, Thus says the LORD, "Because the Syrians have said, The LORD is God of the hills, but he is not God of the valleys, therefore will I deliver all this great multitude into thine hand, and ye shall know that I am the LORD" (1 Kings 20:28).

One of my favorite writers is the distinguished Scottish preacher George H. Morrison (1866-1928). His ministry drew such vast crowds that people would line up an hour prior to the services to insure finding seats in the large auditorium. His pulpit style, as well as his writing, flourish with imagination and sound biblical insights.

Here is an example.

"Sometimes we fall into the sin of limiting God to the greater hours of our life. I take it that all of us are so tempted. When the Syrians were fighting Israel they found they were always beaten on the hills, from which they gathered that the God of Israel was a God of the hills and not of the valleys. And this exclusion of the will of God from the peaceful and lowly valley-land of life is not confined to Syrian mentality. Every life has its dramatic hours and knows the exhilaration of the heights. In such hours, "so nigh to God is man," we often are strangely conscious of His presence.

"But to limit the Holy One of Israel to our rarer moments on the hills is to miss the wonder of His fellowship. He is as near us in the dreary day as in the day when all the birds are singing. He is as close to us in lowly duty as in the hours that are going to alter everything. He is present in the lilies of the field, according to the teaching of our Lord, as magnificently as in the earthquake or the storm. Do not confine God to the big things as if these alone lay upon His heart. Never reserve Him for the greater moments as if He had no feeling for the lesser ones. To do so is to fall into the sin which was recorded against the ancient Jews -- "They limited the Holy One of Israel" (Psalm 78:41). (To read more of Morrison's writings, you can download his Devotional Sermons for free at www.e-sword.net )

God takes pleasure when we trust in His power to save; when we boast in the Lord, rather than in our own strength. It honors Him when we hold to an unflinching faith in the face of insurmountable obstacles, and debilitating limitations. Even though we may appear to be but a "little flock of goats" beset all around with innumerable opponents armed to the teeth -- the Lord can handle it.

And handle it He will! For He is not merely the God of the Hills, but not of the valleys -- He is the Lord of All!
.