Do We Limit God? Yes...We Do.

Do We Limit God? Yes...We Do.

by David Brenneman 

"Now to Him who is able to do far more abundantly beyond all that we ask or think, according to the power that works within us,to Him be the glory in the church and in Christ Jesus to all generations forever and ever. Amen." Ephesians 3:20-21 NASB95 

It's interesting to read this passage in the same day as when the Lord Jesus Christ responds to Job. 

I still remember songs more than most people's facts, or their names.  

"When did His mercy change?

Never has, never will

My God is still the same, yeah

My God is still the same

Just ask the words

You prayed in desperation if they're heard

They'll say my God is still the same

Ask the grave

If it's strong enough to keep hope in it's chains

It'll say, "God is still the same"

Yeah

When did He break His promise?

When did His kindness fail?

Never has, never will

My God is still the same

When did He lose His power?

When did His mercy change?

Never has, never will

My God is still the same, yeah

Not once did He ever stop moving

Not once has He ever let go

Not once did He ever stop proving

Our God is in control

Not once did He ever stop moving

Not once has He ever let go

Not once did He ever stop proving

Our God is in control

When did He break His promise?

When did His kindness fail?

Never has, never will

My God is still the same

When did He lose His power?

When did His mercy change?

Never has, never will

My God is still the same, yeah

Not once did He ever stop moving

Not once has He ever let go

Not once did He ever stop proving

Our God is in control

Not once did He ever stop moving

Not once has He ever let go

Never has, never will

My God is still the same

(My God is still the same)

My God is still the same" 

- My God is Still the Same - Sanctus Real 

Our finite minds box us into only what we can conceive or digest.  Go to Proverbs 3:5-8 NASB95 "Trust in the Lord with all your heart And do not lean on your own understanding. In all your ways acknowledge Him, And He will make your paths straight. Do not be wise in your own eyes; Fear the Lord and turn away from evil. It will be healing to your body And refreshment to your bones."

We also attempt to create God in our own image.  We take our understanding, our wisdom and mix it with our desires and our wants out of life.  

Solomon only ever asked for wisdom from God and got everything anyone could ever want.  It eventually was his downfall.  After writing Song of Solomon, Ecclesiastes and Proverbs.  Then he began not seeking the Lord and instead began relying on his own wisdom, creating alliances by marriage that were against the Law of God.  He began following the customs of many lands and accumulated wives and concubines.  Began amassing wealth beyond measure and eventually lost himself.  Becoming a shadow of the person he was at the beginning of his reign.  His heart was never the same. It had been divided among hundreds of idols.  He certainly did what was right in his own eyes...even with that kind of wisdom available to him.  He departed the ways of God.  I can only imagine what his father David said to him as he came to Paradise.

We too can think more highly of ourselves than we ought to.  Get degrees, get higher learning. Look down on those without those things.  Ignore the prompting of the Spirit of God.  Force ourselves into a life He never ever wanted for us.

We wrap ourselves in chains of our own making and then wonder why we can't move forward in this life. 

We limit God. 

We begin our own acceptance of the idols we bring into our lives or create ourselves. 

Reviewing what the Apostles said to the early Church:  "“For it seemed good to the Holy Spirit and to us to lay upon you no greater burden than these essentials:  that you abstain from things sacrificed to idols and from blood and from things strangled and from fornication; if you keep yourselves free from such things, you will do well. Farewell.”" Acts 15:28-29 NASB95. 

Our lives get difficult for only a few reasons. Because of our choices or because of the things permitted to happen to us by God.  

In Christ our sanctification WILL happen. This IS the will of God for us in Christ Jesus.  We prolong things by our will attempting to be done instead.

God's doing a work in us so that we may grow in Christ and reach others.  Our level of belief, level of faith, has the greatest impact on our limiting the work of God in us. 

Jesus pointed to the faith of a child.  He pointed, through Paul, of what love does. 

We wonder why life is rough and quite often don't look in the mirror for the answer.  

We don't demand our will to be done here on Earth from God.  Big big no no.

We don't blame God. Job learned that lesson.

We are here for His purpose, not ours or we would already be in Heaven. 

Much begins by sitting at the feet of Jesus.  Much begins in accepting that we don't know it all.  That we are not going to understand it all. That our relationship with Jesus is more important than our understanding of the world or ourselves. 

David was a man after God's own heart.  He sought to understand God. He sought to just believe God and take Him at His word.  He was very blessed of God. 

Life isn't ours to craft into our desires for it.

We are His workmanship created in Christ Jesus for good works that we might walk in them.  We are to live our lives in such a way that people see our good works and glorify our Father in Heaven.  We don't have a several hundred laws to obey. We see what the Church was told.  

My encouragement to you is to cease striving after the wind.  Cease your efforts to get what you want out of life.  Seek first His kingdom and His righteousness and all these things will be added unto you: an abundant full life.