Jr. High Chapel Message, June 2010

 Chisana inori (small prayer or prayer from someone small) This is the name of a Japanese song we sang at the beginning of chapel. A person is praying to God who is “bigger than the sky above me,” asking for deliverance. After praying, the person experiences a return of peace, as if “clouds are removed from his eyes and he can see the blue skies again.”

 Do you think of yourself as being small or big? As being powerless or able to do anything? Americans think of themselves as big. Probably because we identify ourselves with our country and the country is big. We also think of ourselves as having power to do things, “we can do it.” 

In the Bible, King David was the most powerful king in the history of Israel. He and his army had defeated nations that were larger and more powerful than themselves. Under his rule, the country enjoyed unity and peace from their enemies. Yet, King David thought he was small. He knew he was small, small compared to GOD.

Let’s read Psalm 8: 1, 3-5,

 Vs. 1 Oh Lord, our Lord, 

How majestic is thy name in all the earth!

You have set your glory above the heavens.

 

Vs. 3-5 When I consider your heavens, the work of your fingers,

The moon and the stars which you have set in place,

What is man that you are mindful of him, the son of man that you care for him?

You made him a little lower than the heavenly beings and crowned him with glory and honor. 

King David spent time looking at the heavens. He was a shepherd and a soldier before he became king. He spent a lot of time outside, sleeping under the stars.

Have you ever considered how large the heavens are? We city folk don’t spend a lot of time outside at night, looking at the sky. We can’t see the billions of stars that are out there, either. We have to travel far from the city’s lights in order to see them.

Recently, I saw this video. The man was talking about the known universe. The universe is so large that it is measured in light years. What is a light year? Right. The distance light travels in one year. And how far do you think that is??10 chou km

Then he talked about the size of the planets and stars. He said if earth were the size of a golf ball, our sun would be 15 feet across. But our sun is not very big as far as stars go. He talked about other stars out in the universe. They are so large, that we can see their light, even though they are millions of light years away.

Here’s a part of that video. Here’s our solar system, Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Neptune, the sun…

Look at how small the earth is compared to the sun. But look at how small the sun is compared to these other stars!! Even our sun is not visible any more, it’s so small!!

WOW.

King David didn’t have the benefit of the Hubble telescope or space technology. But sleeping under the stars, he knew that he was small. “When I look at the moon and the stars” he says, “I wonder what you saw in me

It doesn’t make sense, really. Why would the creator of all that, those HUGE stars, the enormous galaxy, everything around us, care about little human beings? But He does! God does care about us. He saw us before we were born. He made our bodies. He knows the number of hairs on our heads! He knows our thoughts. He knows the number of days we will live. And he has a plan for our lives.

David knew that God listened to him. He knew that God cared about him. He depended on it.

God is waiting to hear us talk to him. He is waiting to take care of us. The GOD who created the HUGE universe not only wants to take care of us, HE is big enough to do it! What problem is too big for Him?

When I think my problems are more than I can bear, GOD is there to help. He promises never to leave us or forsake us. He doesn’t promise that there will be no problems. Only that He will hear us when we pray and help us in our time of need.

When you think your problems are too much for you, look around and remember. The GOD who created all this is listening for you to call for help!