You're in your bedroom when all of a sudden someone knocks on the door.
"I have a surprise for you. Mind if I bring it to you?" your friend asks.
"Yeah, sure. Bring it on in."
"Are you sure. I don't think it'll fit in your room." Your friend glances around, sizing up the place.
"Of course. It'll fit. Bring it on in."
You like surprises. You know the friend who is asking is trustworthy and always has good things to give you. So you accept the gift and wait for him to bring it in.
That's when he brings in a small object, unwraps it, and starts blowing up a life-size elephant. It gets to about half the size it is supposed to be, and it won't go any further. Your room isn't big enough to hold the gift from your friend.
"Maybe you can take that outside," you say with a puzzled look on your face.
"The air won't go back out once it's grown this much."
"But, it can't grow all the way in here. The room is too small."
So, this example might be a little bit crazy. I don't know too many people who could find a life-size inflatable elephant, let alone one that won't let the air out. But it was used to make a point.
That's how we are with God. We know He has something good for us. We want what He has because we know it's good. We ask Him to give it to us. We wait for Him to give it to us.
But then we set up limits.
We try to fit what He will do for us into our expectations. Instead of saying, "I expect You to move in ways bigger than I can imagine," we say, "This is where I am, and this is where You can go from here."
Recently, I was spending some time with God. During that time with Him, I asked myself, "Will I limit my limitless God?" I meant it to be a challenge to myself. I meant it to be a reminder not to limit Him. Well, instead of letting me think about it, God answered for me.
"You already are."
Well, if that didn't get me thinking about my supposedly rhetorical question, I don't think anything would have. God used it to show me how I have been thinking about a certain situation in my life. What I thought was merely having trouble seeing how I could reach my potential in a certain area was way more than that. Thinking that way put a limit on God.
God doesn't care about titles. He doesn't care what I think is expected of me. What He cares about is trust in Him - trust in His ability to do way more through me than I could ever hope to do on my own. He is a God without limit. He will take whatever room we give Him to move. A title doesn't matter. My expectations of myself don't matter. What matters is my trust in His ability to do great things through me.
So, the rhetorical question that God answered for me did make me think. It helped me take the limits off. And I hope it makes you think too. Know that God has big things in store for you. Know that He will give you whatever you expect, but expect Him to do more than you can imagine. Ask yourself if you will limit a limitless God.
I hope when you answer that question you answer, "I will not limit my limitless God."
