God’s Capacity [ability, capability, power] vs Our Expectations
Today I want to talk about what our expectations are when we pray.
What do we expect that God will do for us in our life?
How many, many, times we put limits by our expectations of what God can do and what He will do. Whatever the reasons, we do not see that we truly serve a mighty and awesome God. We serve the God who created everything. We serve the God that ransomed us from sin by the blood of His own Son.
We by faith accept that He has given us salvation and we believe that we are saved from all our sins. We believe that we have eternal life in Christ.
But do we believe that our God can truly do exceeding, abundantly above all we ask or think? [Eph 3:20]
Do we sincerely believe that there is nothing too hard for our God? [Jeremiah 32:27]
First, I think that the problem lies with our perception of our God. For some reason we tend to create a box that we design, and we start to think this is the capacity of our God. We forget that He is limitless in power and might. We neglect to recall that His understanding far exceeds anything we could possibly conceive. So, we limit what we ask or think into the confines of the box that we have designed.
We need a renewed mindset. We need to rethink how we perceive our God. Do we see Him “high and lifted up”? Like Isaiah saw Him in the temple? [Isaiah 6:1]
Do we see that Heaven is His throne and the earth is His footstool? [Isaiah 66:1]
I think that all too often we neglect to remember these things and think of God in the terms of human capabilities. Or we think that He is so high and holy. Why should He be concerned about the things that concern me? And thus, we limit our expectations of what our God can and will do.
Let’s look at a few folks in the Bible that had a similar problem. First let us look at Abraham and Sarah. They were both quite elderly and God promised them a child. From the box of our expectation we most likey would say, “ there is no way this is gonna happen. They are too old. It is not possible.” But God is true to His word. He keeps His promises.
Genesis 21:1 And the LORD visited Sarah as He had said, and the LORD did unto Sarah as He had spoken.
Genesis 21:2 For Sarah conceived, and bare Abraham a son in his old age, at the set time of which God had spoken to him.
What about the widow at Zarephath? She had a little bit of oil and a little bit of flour and that was all that she had left. There was a great famine in the land. All she could see was that she and her son were goin ta starve to death. She was out gathering sticks to make a fire and bake the last small cakes of bread and then starve to death. [1Kings 17:12] Though all looked hopeless. She was obedient and God kept His word and provided for them until He sent rain on the land again.
1Kings 17:15 And she went and did according to the saying of Elijah: and she, and he, and her house, did eat many days.
1Kings 17:16 And the barrel of meal wasted not, neither did the cruse of oil fail, according to the word of the LORD, which He spoke by Elijah.
What is it in our life that we see as greater than our God?
Are we seeing circumstances that are humanly impossible to overcome?
Are we looking at our life situations and seeing only an insignificant supply for our need?
Do we see problems and troubles that are huge giants in our way?
If this is the case, then we need again to be reminded of just who our God is that we serve!!!
Our God is an awesome God. He reigns over all on His throne in Heaven. Heaven is His throne, and the earth is His footstool. Think about that a moment. He is totally in control of everything. He rules over all creation. He rules over Heaven and He rules over the earth, the sky, the universe, everything. Isa_66:1 Thus saith the LORD, The heaven is my throne, and the earth is my footstool: where is the house that ye build unto me? and where is the place of my rest?
We begin to concentrate on our situation, it becomes overwhelming to us. We know that we, in and of ourselves, cannot fix it, or change it. We think, “ we cannot give ourselves a job. We cannot heal ourselves of any disease. We cannot fix the brokenness in our family. It is all too big for us.
What are the giants in our lives. Are we like King Saul and only seeing how big they are in comparison to us? Are we thinking there is no way to win this battle? Are we dwelling on the hopelessness of the situation?
We trust our God for the greatest miracle, Salvation and eternal life. But we can’t trust Him to take care of us. To get us through this life until He calls us home to our reward with Him. We believe that there is eternal life and we will some day go and be forever with the Lord. But what size box are we putting our God in. How vast is the eternal state that we are envisioning?
Perhaps it is time to look again at some of the things the scriptures tell us about our God. Perhaps we need to be awakened again to the truths that our God is greater, mightier, stronger than anything we could possibly face in this life. Will we place a child like faith in Him? Will we believe that He is God and He is totally in Control of everything?
Psalms 24:1 A Psalm of David. The earth is the LORD’S, and the fulness thereof; the world, and they that dwell therein.
Psa 24:2 For he hath founded it upon the seas, and established it upon the floods.
Psa 50:10 For every beast of the forest is mine, and the cattle upon a thousand hills.
Psa 50:11 I know all the fowls of the mountains: and the wild beasts of the field are mine.
Psa 50:12 If I were hungry, I would not tell thee: for the world is mine, and the fulness thereof.
John_16:33 These things I have spoken unto you, that in me ye might have peace. In the world ye shall have tribulation: but be of good cheer; I have overcome the world.
Jesus told us that in this world we would face tribulation [From G2346; thlip’-sis, pressure: – afflicted, (-tion), anguish, burdened, persecution, trouble]. But He did not stop there. He told us to be of good cheer because He had OVERCOME the world.
He has [From G3529; nik-ah’-o – to subdue – conquer, prevail, get the victory.] He has conquered. He has prevailed against, He has gotten the Victory over the world. He is our awesome mighty God, and we can know that He will prevail, He will conquer, He will get the victory over any and all situations and circumstances in our lives. We just have to look beyond our earthly expectations and look to the Capacity of God.
Did you know that our Milky Way Galaxy is 80,000 light years across. A light year is how far light can travel in a year. Light travels at 186,000 miles per second,or 31,556,952 seconds times 186,000 miles. [5,869,593,072,000 miles] Can you even begin to imagine that vast distance. I don’t think we can envision the distance of one light year let alone 80,000 of them. Our God created all the galaxies. Our galaxy has over 100 Billion stars. Our human minds cannot even conceive of one billion stars. Yet God says, He calls all the stars by name.
Psa 147:4 He tells the number of the stars; he calleth them all by their names.
The Milky Way is only one of billions of galaxies in the Cosmos. So literally the stars are innumerable. And yet God says only five words regarding His creating all these countless stars.
Genesis 1:16 And God made two great lights; the greater light to rule the day, and the lesser light to rule the night:
he made the stars also.
Oh, but I know, our problem, our circumstance, our situation is too great for our God. Because our human eyes can only see within the box that we have designed and therefore surely, God is not able, or He just can’t be bothered, or we are just not worthy enough for Him to handle whatever we are facing.
The problem is not God’s Capacity rather it is Our Expectations. If we will only look to our God we will know beyond doubt that our God is greater than anything we might face. But our expectations are still looking through the lens of earthy eyes. We are only thinking in human terms. It is impossible with man. Therefore, we cannot perceive that this is a very small thing for our great and mighty God.
Luke 1:37 For with God nothing shall be impossible.
Luke 18:27 And he said, The things which are impossible with men are possible with God.
It is up to you and me to decide whether we will continue to look at all our problems and needs through our human eyes and think it is impossible. Or will we choose to look with the eyes of faith at our Awesome, Mighty God with whom nothing is impossible. Will we see only what is in front of us or will we look beyond the Billions of Stars and the Millions of Galaxies and see the one who created them all and know that there is nothing impossible for Him?
Will we look at God’s Capacity which is boundless or our own Expectations of only earthly, limited ability?
Our God is an Awesome God
He reigns from Heaven above
With wisdom, power and love
Our God is an Awesome God!!!!