How Wonderful is God!

(photo courtesy of Kay Deel)

I was encouraged today to reflect on what I thought was wonderful about God. At first, it was easy to think about the things God had done that were “wonderful” to me. But then I realized that being wonderful was more than about what God had done; it’s about who He is. My list began to grow and grow. Here are just a few of the reasons God is so wonderful!

1. God is wonderful because He loves me!

• “The LORD hath appeared of old unto me, saying, Yea, I have loved thee with an everlasting love: therefore with lovingkindness have I drawn thee.” – I Samuel 2:2
• This is not to mean that I think God is wonderful as a result of the love He has for me; it means that He is wonderful because He loves me knowing me the way that only He and I know me. Not only that, but God loves me unconditionally and forever! Despite the fact that I am a sinner and can do nothing myself to rectify that status, God loves me! I disappoint Him, I grieve Him, and sometimes I choose myself over Him, but He still loves me and will continue to love me forever and ever! I am Him and He is mine!
  • “But God commendeth his love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.” – Romans 5:8
  • “Herein is love, not that we loved God, but that he loved us, and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins.” – 1 John 4:10

2. God is wonderful because He redeemed me.

• “In whom we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins, according to the riches of his grace;” – Ephesians 1:7
• When sin entered the world, all humanity was cursed and in danger of never being with God again. In His great mercy and love for all of us, He sent His beloved Son, Jesus Christ, to pay the price for our redemption. That price was to suffer horrific cruelty and death upon a Roman cross, taking the punishment for the sins of the world, past, present, and future, upon Himself. The sinless sacrifice that Jesus made satisfied God’s requirement for our sin-debt and made the way for us to be reconciled to our heavenly Father.
• The fact that all we have to do is repent, ask for His forgiveness, and accept Him as Lord and Saviour is another incomprehensible facet of God. But that is the wonderful love of God. He wants us to be saved from the judgment of our sins and to spend eternity with Him. If that isn’t wonderful, I don’t know what is.

3. God is wonderful because He knows me personally!

• “Before I formed thee in the belly I knew thee…” – Jeremiah 1:5a
• This really overwhelms me to think that the Creator of EVERYTHING knows me intimately, and He knew me before I was even conceived! I was a thought in God’s mind first, , and although He knew how I would fail and disappoint Him throughout my life, He still chose to give me life!
  • “I will praise thee; for I am fearfully and wonderfully made: marvellous are thy works; and that my soul knoweth right well.” – Psalm 139:14
• God thinks about me! He has the whole universe under His control, yet He thinks about me so much that I cannot even count those thoughts!
  • “How precious also are thy thoughts unto me, O God! how great is the sum of them! If I should count them, they are more in number than the sand: when I awake, I am still with thee.” – Psalm 139:17-18

4. God is wonderful because He listens to my prayers.

• “For the eyes of the Lord are over the righteous, and his ears are open unto their prayers: but the face of the Lord is against them that do evil.” – 1 Peter 3:12
• When I pray, my words do not float into space. They are directed to my heavenly Father. And when I pray, the Lord Jesus Christ talks to His Father about me! He is there interceding for me!! When I think that there are millions of Christians in this world praying to the Lord at any given time, it boggles my mind to think that God can and desires to focus His attention on my petitions! And He does that for each one of His children!
• Remember, He is the Creator of all things. He made every plant, every animal, every insect, every human being… He sustains all of creation, but He listens to ME when I call upon Him! To say He is wonderful is not even close to how truly wonderful He is.
  • “And he is before all things, and by him all things consist.” – Colossians 1:17
  • “But know that the LORD hath set apart him that is godly for himself: the LORD will hear when I call unto him.” – Psalm 4:3

5. God is wonderful because He is merciful.

• “But God, who is rich in mercy, for his great love wherewith he loved us, Even when we were dead in sins, hath quickened us together with Christ, (by grace ye are saved;)” – Ephesians 2:4-5
• To be merciful means to withhold a deserved punishment. The fact that we are all sinners (Romans 3:23) means that we should be spending eternity without the Lord, but in His mercy, God saved us!
  • “Not by works of righteousness which we have done, but according to his mercy he saved us, by the washing of regeneration, and renewing of the Holy Ghost; Which he shed on us abundantly through Jesus Christ our Saviour; That being justified by his grace, we should be made heirs according to the hope of eternal life.” – Titus 3:5-7

6. God is wonderful because He is gracious.

• “For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God:” – Ephesians 2:8
• The truth is that there is absolutely nothing that we can do to merit God’s grace. No matter who “good” we try to be, or how many “good” works we do, it will never be enough to earn our way to heaven.
  • “But we are all as an unclean thing, and all our righteousnesses are as filthy rags; and we all do fade as a leaf; and our iniquities, like the wind, have taken us away.” -Isaiah 64:6
• It is through Christ alone that we can be forgiven of our sins and be saved from the eternal punishment of them. Grace is defined as giving something that is not deserved. That is what happened at the cross. When Jesus died, He paid the price we should have paid, and when He rose from the grave 3 days later, He proved He was truly God and had the power to forgive sins. It’s available to every single person on this planet simply by believing in Him and asking for His undeserved gift of salvation.
  • “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.” – John 3:16

7. God is wonderful because He is God.

• “There is none holy as the LORD: for there is none beside thee: neither is there any rock like our God.” – I Samuel 2:2
• There is on other entity that can claim to be God; there is only One. He alone deserves our worship and praise. He is the Creator of ALL things… from the stars and planets to the earth and all that of which it consists to the intricacies and individuality of each person who has ever lived or will ever live. Who can do these things, but a wonderfully amazing God?
• If there was no other reason to proclaim how wonderful God is, this would be that reason. He is wonderful because He is GOD!

Wonderful, merciful Savior, Precious Redeemer and Friend
Who would have thought that a Lamb could rescue the souls of men
Oh, You rescue the souls of men!

(from “Wonderful, Merciful Saviour” by Dawn Rodgers & Eric Wyse)

“For unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given: and the government shall be upon his shoulder: and his name shall be called Wonderful, Counsellor, The mighty God, The everlasting Father, The Prince of Peace.” – Isaiah 9:6

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There are so many other reasons that God is wonderful! I’d love to read your thoughts on what you feel is wonderful about our Lord.