Our illimitable God

There is a wonderful description of God by Adam Clarke (an 18^th century theologian) quoted in The Divine Conspiracy by Dallas Willard. It draws me back time and again.  It is so rich and inspirational and one of the things it says is that God is ‘illimitable in his immensity.’ My immediate reaction was no, you mean unlimited. I was wrong. There is a huge difference between unlimited and illimitable.  Unlimited means you have no limits which is true about God. Illimitable means you cannot be limited.

God cannot be limited by anything and anyone. God will be God. He will do what he will do. You can choose to put limits on God in your life but the person you harm most if you do this is yourself. By limiting God you limit yourself.

Too often Christians are fearful of what God will do if they open themselves up and say, ‘anything, anyway, anytime God.’ They fear if they give God that liberty God, like some hard taskmaster, will ask them to do something they hate, go somewhere they do not want to go and be someone they do not want to be. So often it is much easier to maintain the status quo than risk letting God do something that may completely change your life.

However, reading on with Adam Clarke he says, ‘(God) from his infinite wisdom can do nothing but what is eternally just and right and kind.’ God is good. He doesn't do anything  unjust, unkind or nasty. He only asks us to do things that are for our good and whilst they may be temporarily uncomfortable, in the long term they will be a source of great blessing. If he asks us to go somewhere that we do not think we will like, we can be confident that with God for us and with us, it is the best thing for us.  In fact that comforting thought can help us through difficult times.

God asked a family I know to move from South Africa to UK. The mother did not want to go but she knew God was in it so they could move with the confidence that if God was asking them to do something, it would be for the good of all. It wasn't easy by any means; in fact at times it was really hard but now, years later, God has used the whole family greatly and there has been wonderful fruit from their ministry. They could have limited God and stayed in South Africa. God would still have used them, they would still have been a great blessing but the best for them, was a move to UK, confirmed many times.

God cannot be limited and if we let him, he will be unlimited in our lives. When we limit God, we put a cap on all the possibilities that could open up. Do not let fear limit you. Anything is possible with God – now that should be a comforting and exciting thought!