Taking God Out of Our Small Boxes
May 1st, 2023
I opened my Bible this morning for quiet time and landed in Jeremiah 32, and was reminded that it is time for me to take God out of the small box I keep Him in…
To quickly put Jeremiah 32 in context, it begins with Jerusalem under siege by Babylon’s army. The city is at war, and the walls are closed off. As this is happening, the prophet Jeremiah finds himself imprisoned in the city for sharing a message from the Lord with King Zedekiah – words that the leader did not want to hear. The book reveals how God tells Jeremiah that his cousin will come to him asking him to buy a certain field in Anathoth. Keep in mind Jeremiah is imprisoned in a walled-off city. How is this possible? God continues by telling Jeremiah that he should accept his cousin’s offer and purchase the land.
To recap…
- Jerusalem is under attack.
- The city is shut up, and its walls are closed.
- Jeremiah is stuck in jail.
- In the midst of this, Jeremiah’s cousin is somehow going to make it to him.
- When his cousin arrives, there will be an offer to buy a piece of property.
- God tells Jeremiah, from jail, to act on the offer.
That’s a lot to process, especially if you are in Jeremiah’s shoes. As he’s accounting for all of this in verse 17, Jeremiah prays to the Lord, “Ah, Sovereign LORD, you have made the heavens and the earth by your great power and outstretched arm. Nothing is too hard for you.” Later, in verse 27, God responds, “I am the Lord, the God of all mankind. Is anything too hard for me?”
Think about what God is saying there for a moment…
“Is anything too hard for me?”
God’s response is clear. Even though it ends with a question mark, there’s no question as to the answer. Nothing is too hard for God. It’s not too hard for God to get Jeremiah’s cousin to him in jail or to make the offer of the land possible, even in the middle of a war in Jerusalem. At the same time, for you and me, it’s not too hard for God to show up in our challenges and circumstances. God is able, and He doesn’t fit in my small box.
This led me to ask myself… Do I have that level of confidence in God? He says nothing is too hard for Him. Do I believe it? Do I trust Him and His abilities enough to bring him my struggles, my stuck moments, my goals, and my dreams? The big things and the small ones?
I find it easy to keep God in that small box up on the shelf. It’s easy to underestimate his power in our lives or to look at our challenges and think they are impossible and unworkable. It’s what leads us to be hopeless.
What if, instead, we reminded ourselves that nothing is too hard for God?
- The struggles we face in our marriages are not too hard for God.
- The challenges we face in our businesses are not too hard for God.
- The trials we face as leaders are not too hard for God.
- The conflicts we face as dads are not too hard for God.
- The battles we face with pornography and addiction are not too hard for God.
- The clashes we face with pride and our egos are not too hard for God.
- The assaults we face financially are not too hard for God.
All of those challenges, when we’re trying to master them under our own power, can seem impossible. Our relationships, businesses and teams, sins and financial stresses… We may not have the strength to face those alone, but God does.
Men, nothing you are facing today is too hard for God. It’s on us, though, each one, to take him out of that small little box on the shelf and trust Him to be enough. It’s on us to invite Him and his power into our challenges, leaning away from our own abilities and toward His. It’s time to take Him out of our small boxes. When we do that, we will see that nothing is too hard for God.
Lean into that today. His power, not yours. Nothing is too hard for Him.
- John Gamades, Author of WAR: A Tactical Guide for Christian Men