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!

Jesus in the boat

¹⁷ And they took a boat and were going across the sea to Capernaum. It was now dark, and still Jesus had not [yet] come back to them.¹⁸ Meanwhile, the sea was getting rough and rising high because of a great and violent wind that was blowing.¹⁹ [However] when they had rowed three or four miles, they saw Jesus walking on the sea and approaching the boat. And they were afraid (terrified).²⁰ But Jesus said to them, It is I; be not afraid! [I Am; stop being frightened!] ²¹ Then they were quite willing and glad for Him to come into the boat. And now the boat went at once to the land they had steered toward. [And immediately they reached the shore toward which they had been slowly making their way.] John 6: 17 – 20 Amplified

I love Jesus’ response to the disciples’ fear when he walked on water to their boat. ‘It is I or I AM’. Exactly the same words that God used to Moses who was scared out of his wits at the thought of having to go and talk to Pharaoh (Exodus 3:12).

In fact in Exodus 6 God said to Moses four times ‘I am the Lord’. What God was saying is I will be with you and everything you need is found in me. You do not need to be afraid because I will be with you and there is nothing else necessary.

The disciples’ response was perfect. They invited Jesus on board and were really glad to have him in the boat. It then says that the boat immediately reached shore. Now whether this was miraculous or not, Jesus presence in the boat changed the situation. They had been struggling for hours and getting nowhere till Jesus was involved. Suddenly the situation changed.

When we are facing difficult circumstances and are feeling fearful, the first thing to know is that God is with us and whatever we need, he is it. If we need strength, comfort, security, reassurance, stability, a sense of worth, acceptance, love, forgiveness or anything else – God is where you find it.

I am sure we all know there are 365 ‘do not fears’ in the Bible; one for each day of the year. Circumstances can feel overwhelming and we can, like Moses, feel hopelessly inadequate but we do not need to fear because God is there.

However we also need to invite him into our boat, our situation.  If Jesus could walk on water to get to the disciples’ boat, it is not exactly surprising that his presence in the boat changed the situation.  God says over and over in the Bible ‘I am the Lord.’ God is Lord over your situation if you invite him in. Then he will change it. What a reassurance that is!

Peace I leave you

Peace I leave with you; my peace I give to you. I do not give to you as the world gives. Do not let your hearts be troubled and do not be afraid. John 14: 27

Jesus spoke these encouraging words to the disciples on the night of the Passover meal just before he was betrayed, tried, flogged and crucified. He knew what lay ahead so it was important for the disciples to know before these awful events that Jesus had left them his peace. Jesus’ peace is not the world’s peace which is a hopeful expression of freedom from war or disturbance. Jesus’ peace can calm all fears and give us that inner certainty that God is for us and will never leave or forsake us.

Peace goes when difficult circumstances come against us. Times of uncertainty bring to the surface our deepest levels of fear, doubt and insecurity. Anxiety and fear of what may happen grip us. The awful sense of things being out of control causes panic to rise and our trust in God to loosen. We feel we must do something but don’t know what to do and apart from shouting at God, the options are not always very promising.

R T Kendall teaches to pray till the peace comes and he uses Paul's advice to the Philippians found in Philippians 4: 6. Do not be anxious about anything but in everything with prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present you requests to God. And the peace of God which transcends all understanding will guard your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus. He teaches that present means to reveal as in a mystery. We need to look at our deepest levels of fear, doubt and insecurity and present or reveal them to God. God knows what they are but till we are honest with ourselves about what we REALLY fear and speak them out to God they will hinder the peace coming. It may be fear of someone dying, of not having enough money to pay the bills, of a teenager getting in trouble with the police or getting involved with the wrong crowd.  Present your fears with your prayers and petitions to God.

As we do this, the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will flood our very being. It will come and guard your heart and mind – so often the whirlpool of insecurity.  The circumstances may not change but you will. You will know that God is holding all things in his hands. Having exposed your deepest fears to God, sometimes the most important words are, ‘I trust you God.’ Time and again I have found that the peace of God has entered me even if nothing else appears to have changed. God is faithful; he has never let me down.

God has left us his peace and he desires we walk in it whether things are going well or not very well. So often in the bad times we discover that all God has said about himself is true as we present to him our fears and as we let his peace come.