Take the Limits OFF!

As I sat down this morning to write, the song How Great is Our God immediately began to play in my mind and I began to sing out loud…”How great is our God! Sing with me …How great is our God! All will see how great, how great is our God!” Then it got even better…”You’re the name above all names! You are worthy of all praise and my heart will sing how great is our God!”  How awesome and wonderful is our God! He is all knowing and all powerful and He loves me! And He loves you! Sometimes we just have to take a moment and remember how great God is. We get caught up in the activity of church but forget the reason we go to church! We go to worship God in spirit and in truth.  Let’s worship Him today!

As I sang through the song, something powerful popped into my spirit. “Take the limits off of Me!” It was so simple and yet we seem to find it so hard. And that’s what the song boils down to. God is great! He is bigger than any sickness. He’s bigger than any cancer. He’s bigger than any debt. He’s bigger than any challenge that we face. He’s a big God! So why do we not expect the impossible from Him? Why do we get bad reports from the doctor and say ‘if you heal me, God, I will do…’ Or when we face trouble, we say, ‘If you’ll just get me out of this, God’. No! We have to KNOW that God is able to do anything but fail. There is no “if”! There are just declarative statements…God, You said in Your word more than once that I am healed by the stripes of Jesus Christ so I am healed! God, You said that if I have faith and do not doubt that I can say to the mountain be removed and it will be done!  God, You said that if I keep my mind focused on you that you would give me perfect peace! That’s a big God!

Psalm 78 is a great chapter to remember how awesome and mighty God is. It’s basically a recap of all the Lord did for the Israelites and how he brought them out time after time. In spite of their sin and complaining, He continued to show compassion and love and work miracle after miracle for them. You can literally feel His power pulsing off of the page. In verse 41, the King James Version says “Yea, they turned back and tempted God, and limited the Holy One of Israel” Other versions say pained or tempted instead of limited but they are all essentially saying that our lack of faith and our sin limit God from fully manifesting himself in our lives.

Matthew 13 is another example. Jesus had just finished teaching on a number of parables and travels to His hometown but is met with attitude and unbelief. Verse 58, which is the very last verse, leaves a lasting message. It says “And he did not do many miracles there because of their lack of faith.”  Their unbelief kept Jesus from performing all that He could have done!

This is a challenge to turn up our faith! God created the universe! He knows how many stars are in the sky. He knows how many hairs are on our heads. We must be important to Him if He took the time to know all of that. I encourage you to look at your faith walk and see if you have been putting limits on God in any areas of your life. If you are seeking healing, don’t limit God with self-diagnoses and timelines! If you are seeking financial breakthrough, don’t limit God with your written financial plan for 2012! If you are seeking a spouse, don’t limit God with your checklist! Whatever you’re seeking, take the limits off! Ephesians 3:20 is one of my life verses and I stand on it every day! The NIV says God “is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine. “  That’s a mighty big God!

I challenge you today to take the limits off! Let God have His way, you won’t be disappointed!

AMEN