Too often I limit my God to the confines of my own narrow, small thinking. Or to the confines of our narrow, small-thinking culture.
Is He limited by the boundaries we set against Him? When we carry on with our lives as though He doesn’t exist, as though He isn’t a living, loving, breathing Person who longs for relationship with us? When we forget that there is One who lived the life we should have lived and died the death we should have died, because He cares for our souls and wants to see us sanctified? Made new?
I don’t think He is limited. My brain (the world, Satan…etc.) would have me believe that I am alone in this battle, that His cause is my cause alone. As if there weren’t other warriors. As if He isn’t the ultimate Warrior, who already fought His cause for ME. Have I yet again chosen the yoke of slavery? The chains of the past?
Comfortable. These chains are comfortable. These ways are my own, worn and weary, tried and true… and yet full of lies. They keep me trapped in the place where Truth and Love cannot enter in, because it’s easier to doubt and pout. It’s easier to believe in a small God. One who changes with my every whim and feeling, so that I can justify my complaining. Justify my sin.
He is not limited by our petty reasoning. By our excuses, justifications, and failures in faith. He is not limited by my unfaithfulness, my lack of trust, or my wallowing. He just is who He is. And He just loves us. Always.
When will this sink in? When will it become the truest thing that I live and breathe every day, so much so that the blessed assurance of His death and resurrection seeps into my deepest being, causes my heart to rejoice in awesome wonder of all that He is and has done for ME? He so loved me! He so loved you!
We are loved and known! Why would we believe in a small God? Why wouldn’t we make more room in our hearts to allow the One who is big to make His dwelling place there? Why wouldn’t we strip off every weight and snare, untangle ourselves from the emptiness of the world and dare to come boldly before His throne?
Discouragement threatens to consume me, but His heart is mine. The life we’re called to is really unstoppable; it’s not some flimsy thing. It’s the surest foundation, and once I can get to the place of simple faith I’ve received my reward.
I seek nothing but Your Kingdom, Lord, nothing but You. I may be a prisoner of the earth, but I am a citizen of Heaven.
rhythms of grace 