“How great is our God?” Infinitely greater or only slightly bigger than us?
With Texan charm, hilarious anecdotes, and a no-holds barred approach to teaching the Bible, Jen Wilkin gave us a real treat at the London Women’s Convention last Saturday.
I was privileged to go as part of a group of brilliant women from my evening bible study group. We enjoyed being in central London on a Saturday afternoon. We were blessed by beautiful music with which to worship our great God. And we loved the opportunity to drink tea, talk and laugh with/at each other without the interruptions of small children.
But most of all, we loved being in God’s Word, taught in such a clear, relevant way, that exposed our hearts for the way we view God and challenged us to have a far, far greater view of Him and a far, far smaller view of ourselves.
Jen said she wasn’t a motivational speaker, and didn’t “do” the traditional women’s conference topics of “what’s my identity in Christ?”. All she wanted to talk about, she said right from the outset, was God. Her revelation that the Bible is a book about God might have got some chuckles for its obviousness- but we so often make it about us….. What does it say about God’s plan for my life? What does it say about who I am? About the type of woman I should be? When actually, it’s about God, and his character.
She taught us that Psalm 139 was less about reassuring us that we are fearfully and wonderfully made, as is so often the answer given to Christian women who are unhappy with their appearance. Instead it’s about God being fearful and wonderful, and far, far greater than us.
I was particularly challenged by her question: take the huge circle of what God knows – with his all-knowing omniscience – and the tiny dot of what we know – with our finite human knowledge – is it possible that God might know things about our circumstances that we don’t understand? She said that we want to understand the plot resolutions in our life time. But is it possible that we might not get to see how that story line evolves? That it might bear fruit in someone else’s life and we won’t know? He numbers our days and gives us just the right amount.
What a comfort when you’re unsure why things are working out (or not!) the way they seem to be at the moment in life!
If you didn’t make it this year then you missed out! But do consider coming to the Co-Mission Women’s Day on 20 January for more Bible teaching from brilliant women.
Ailsa Williams, member of The 10:45
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