God and God Alone
Does it ever seem like everything is falling down around you? That disappointment or fear dogs your every step? One Web site offers a solution: Grab some wool and knitting needles and “overcome fear itself.” Not all of us, though, can knit our way to security. But all of us can focus on the Source of security. In fact, He is the Source, Support, and Sustenance of this world; and focusing on Him can change your life.
He Is the Source
Romans 11:36 says, “For of Him and through Him and to Him are all things, to whom be glory forever.” God is the Source of everything. Yahweh is the eternal, self-sufficient God. Yahweh (ʏʜᴡʜ) is the name God chose for Himself. It is the Hebrew verb for “I am.” God named Himself I Am, not I Was or I Will Be. God exists, and everything else has its existence from Him.
Augustus H. Strong, a Baptist minister and theologian who died in 1921, wrote, “God is the eternal, personal Spirit who is the source, support, and end of all things.” Yahweh simply is.
A second name God gives Himself is Elohim, the plural form of El, meaning “strength.” It emphasizes the fact that God is the Creator of all things. He says in Scripture, “Have you not known? Have you not heard? The everlasting God [Elohim], the Lᴏʀᴅ [Yahweh], the Creator of the ends of the earth, neither faints nor is weary. His understanding is unsearchable” (Isa. 40:28). Yahweh, the everlasting God and Creator of the ends of the Earth, does not grow weary or tired. He has made everything and has everything under control.
Colossians 1:16 affirms the same thing with regard to Jesus: “For by Him all things were created that are in heaven and that are on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or principalities or powers. All things were created through Him and for Him.” He is the source, support, end, and purpose of all things.
The Lord God authored the eternal, grand plan for all of human history. He created this entire universe in response to Satan’s challenge. The angels were created first, and then Satan rebelled against God and challenged His holiness. God responded by determining the best method of manifesting His holiness and glory for all of the angelic creation. God had this plan before the foundation of the world:
Surely, as I have thought, so it shall come to pass, and as I have purposed, so it shall stand:…This is the purpose that is purposed against the whole earth, and this is the hand that is stretched out over all the nations. For the Lᴏʀᴅ of hosts has purposed, and who will annul it? His hand is stretched out, and who will turn it back? (Isa. 14:24, 26–27).
God has planned out the course of the ages. That is what enables Him to give us prophecy. In the book of Daniel, God revealed how He has decreed the order of the nations. In 550 B.C. He showed the prophet Daniel the entire plan for the rest of world history.
The apostle Paul wrote that God “in all wisdom and prudence…made known to us the mystery of His will, according to His good pleasure which He purposed in Himself, that in the dispensation of the fullness of the times He might gather together in one all things in Christ, both which are in heaven and which are on earth—in Him” (Eph. 1:8–10).
God works all things after the counsel of His own will. He is not scurrying around, mumbling to Himself, What shall I do? How shall I respond? He is not concerned about the outcome of world events because He has planned everything throughout the course of human history.
He Is the Support
God is also the support of all things: “Through Him…are all things” (Rom. 11:36). “He [Jesus] is before all things, and in Him all things consist” (Col. 1:17). God upholds “all things by the word of His power” (Heb. 1:3). He simply put the universe together and, by His spoken Word, maintains it.
Scientists have studied the atom. They know electrons are negative, protons are positive, and neutrons are neutral. They can even see these atomic particles with microscopes. And they can divide the atom and hope to control it. But they cannot assemble it. Scripture says, “In Him all things consist” (Col. 1:17). He holds all things together.
One day this earth will be destroyed by fire because Jesus will merely relax His Word, and all the atoms will split and fly apart. At the end of the Millennial Kingdom, after His program is finished, the entire universe will burn up in one huge, massive explosion before God brings us into the eternal state that He has prepared for us.
He Is the Sustenance
God also sustains all things. Psalm 104 overflows with praise for His sustaining power:
Bless the Lᴏʀᴅ, O my soul! O Lᴏʀᴅ my God, You are very great: You are clothed with honor and majesty. You who laid the foundations of the earth, so that it should not be moved forever….You have set a boundary that they [the waters] may not pass over, that they may not return to cover the earth. He causes the grass to grow for the cattle, and vegetation for the service of man. He appointed the moon for seasons; the sun knows its going down. These all wait for You, that You may give them their food in due season. What You give them they gather in; You open Your hand, they are filled with good. You hide Your face, they are troubled; You take away their breath, they die and return to their dust. You send forth Your Spirit, they are created; and You renew the face of the earth (vv. 1, 5, 9, 14, 19, 27–30).
If God were to withdraw His Holy Spirit from the universe, everything would curl up and die like a tree that is cut down. We live and work in the strength of God’s sustaining providence every day. We endure the trials and the process of growing to maturity in Christ. We enjoy blessing in our families because of God’s sustaining grace.
God, in fact, maintains our very existence: “For in Him we live and move and have our being” (Acts 17:28). By virtue of His nature, He is the ground of existence. He depends on no one. He is completely self-sufficient, the One who sustains all of life until the day He declares it finished.
God is also the end of all things. Everything exists for His pleasure. Revelation 4:11 speaks of 24 elders in the throne room of heaven, worshiping God. As people who have gone all the way through life and graduated to heaven, they speak from heaven’s perspective: “You are worthy, O Lord, to receive glory and honor and power; for You created all things, and by Your will they exist and were created.” Everything ultimately exists for God.
What a comfort it should be that this majestic, all-powerful, all-wise Creator loves you and me. He loves us so much, “He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life” (Jn. 3:16).
We often get turned around in the little lives we live. We exaggerate our importance and centrality. And when everything seems to be falling down around us, we fail to focus on the One in whom, through whom, and to whom are all things. All things exist for His glory. And one day, everyone on Earth will glorify His name.
In 1918 a missionary friend gave Helen Lemmel a tract that inspired her to write a hymn. Helen got it right with her beautiful refrain:
Turn your eyes upon Jesus,
Look full in His wonderful face,
And the things of earth will grow strangely dim
In the light of His glory and grace.
