Trust In A Big God

One of the saddest things I have experienced in the Back 9 as I mentor young people is their “small view” of God. I get consumed with regret at times for not being more courageous on the Front 9…one of those people who takes “bigger, riskier steps of faith”…knowing that when anyone does that…not only does their personal faith grow big and strong…it grows those around them! Minimizing God ….is NOT where I want to live in the Back 9……..

A. W. Tozer says it best, “….the most portentous fact about any man is not what he at a given time may say or do, but what he in his deep heart conceives God to be like….”

What comes to mind when you think about God? It is my belief that we base things on circumstances and, at times, we make God small….putting Him in a very finite position. One of limits….and smallness. We are all so wrong! God is an OMNI-circumstance God!

How we think about God, our view of Him and His character, will determine what our lives turn out to be. I have truly come to understand, especially in the last 6 years, that I was guilty of “creating God in my image” instead of allowing HIM to “create me in His image.” For me to really grasp this thought…and allow God to be who He is….I have had to “overhaul” my thought life……in Scripture….it says in 2 Corinthians 10:5, “We demolish arguments and every pretension that sets itself up against the knowledge of God, and we take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ. ”

Somehow the rat race of life…and being lulled into the “culture of worry…anxiousness” that is prevalent…slowly captured my thinking and my spirit. As I’ve said often, all thoughts precede an action. I finally hit that “steel wall” of realization….that I had things…and my thinking WAY OUT OF LINE….not at all paying attention to “my thoughts”…allowing my “created image” to be the prevalent one….and that, my friends, is TERRIBLE.

So….I came to the place of “being sick and tired of being sick and tired!” I adopted and dwelled and spent much time on the Scripture, “‘My thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are my ways your ways,'” declares the Lord. ‘As the heavens are higher than the earth so are my ways higher than your ways'” (Isaiah 55:8-9). As Christians we have to continually “dwell” and “rest” in the place God has us. His ways may not make sense…but we have to trust His “higher” ways.

I have to realize…I am like a two year old wanting “candy” for lunch when my mother, who knows better, wants me to eat healthy. Or when I was a teenager the boy who was calling….Mom suggested I just be friends…..I begrudgingly listened…two years later the same boy was arrested for drugs (he was cute). Ten years later he was found dead in a river (true story).

We just don’t have the mind of Christ…not the “forward look”. I encourage you today….examine your thoughts and what you think of God…Do you see Him as small….limited…finite? He is NONE of those things….He is ALL-KNOWING, ALL-POWERFUL, INFINITE, PERFECT, LOVING, FORGIVING, AND IN THE RESURRECTING BUSINESS of our lives, mistakes, failures. He is the same God today that He was when He turned water into wine, fed the 5,000, made the blind from birth see, raised Lazarus from the dead, made the lame walk, and rose from the grave on the third day…….Jesus is all of that and more.

What I know is this: to truly take hold of an ALL-POWERFUL GOD….means to dismiss our undiagnosed pride….to realize…WE are made in His image…He is not made in ours! TRUST GOD …..JUMP into His arms….take Him down the limits you have put on Him in your mind…CHANGE YOUR THINKING AND YOUR VIEW OF GOD…..CHOOSE TO LIVE A BOLD AND COURAGEOUS LIFE….walking with a HOLY GOD! Start to pray ridiculous prayers…having ridiculous faith…and ridiculous radical obedience. It is there that you will find…a BOLD LIFE!

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