Life can so often seem full of limits: speed limits, limits to how many items can be bought on the special offers in supermarkets, limits to how many calories you’re supposed to consume in a day, download limits, height limits and so on. Many of these limits are for our protection and safety and we easily become used to these and view them rather like a box where we have to keep the lid on for our own good…
The problem comes when we apply these limitations to God. Ps 78:41 talks of how the Israelites repeatedly put God to the test, limiting (or vexing) Him. God has promised limitless supply and help (see Phil 4:19), but so often we prefer the safety of our life-limiting box to the abundant life God has promised us.
This can be seen in several different areas:
- Trust (it’s easy to think we are trusting God when all is going according to our plans, but much harder when we don’t know what the outcome of a particular situation will be. Matt 17:20 tells us that with faith as small as a mustard seed mountains can be moved: ‘nothing will be impossible for you.’ Trust leads us to a place where the impossible becomes possible!)
- Fear (so often, fear can be a stumbling-block to us. We prefer the safety of our box, even with all its limits, to the vastness of God’s wide unknown.)
- Leaning (so often, we lean on our understanding and ingenuity, but Prov 3:5-6 reminds us that we need to trust God with all our hearts and refuse to lean on our own understanding.)
- Lack of expectation (seen so often in our lack of expectation that God will heal us (‘this is a trial I have to bear’) and our lack of expectation that God will do miracles in our day)
Job 11:17 reminds us of the awesome power of God; His understanding has no limits (Ps 147:5) and Jesus has promised to give the Spirit without limit (Jn 3:34). We can open the lid on the box of our lives and inhabit the vast country called salvation where God can do more than we ask or imagine. (Eph 3:20) It may seem daunting and even scary, but this way of living in God’s limitless supply has the power to transform our lives.