Now is the Time to Reconsider
Your Perception of God
When you think of God how do you perceive Him? Do you have God in a box? Is He in a black box of unfathomable mystery? Or do you place Him in a soft white box where He resides on a cloud somewhere? Maybe your God shaped box is of majestic purple signifying untouchable royalty. Perhaps you have God in a beige box-benign-not often considered. Or is the box you have God in a multi-sided rich burgundy to be opened only on various occasions?
Placing God in a box places enormous limits on your faith. Placing God in a box places enormous limits on your walk with Him on this earth. Placing God in a box places you outside on your own to face the daily challenges of life. Placing God in a box places you in a precarious position open to worry, fear and unbelief. Take God out of the box.
Know Who He Really Is
Jesus Christ is the rose of Sharon, the lily of the valleys (Song of Solomon 2:1), the light of the world (John 8:12), the good shepherd (John 10:11), the vine with you as the branches (John 15:5), blessed and Sovereign, the King of kings and the Lord of lords (1Timothy 6:15), the Lion from the tribe of Judah (Revelation 5:5), the Alpha and Omega (Revelation 21:6), the root and the offspring of David, the bright and morning star (Revelation 22:16). He is the Lord of all creation. Choose to let Him be the Lord of your life.
Remove the Limits!
To put Him in a box is really to keep yourself in a very small and limiting box. God can do exceedingly and abundantly above anything you can think or imagine. Are you facing a diagnosis that medical people say is incurable? Have you been told a number to narrow the diagnosis even further? After a surgical biopsy I was told I had stage 4 cancer and was within one and a half weeks of death in 1992. But God! God is not moved by names and stages and finite numbers. He is infinite and His stage is always to intercede. God has the first and the final say in your life. Words and numbers may define a situation in the natural but God can refine any situation in the blink of an eye.
Maybe the challenge you face is financial, emotional or spiritual. God can refine anything you are dealing with if you choose to follow Him, trust in Him and open your heart (for it is always a heart issue) to Him. Jesus died to set you free from worldly constrictions. He died to let you out of the confining box of religion and bring you to an expansive relationship with Him. You are here ‘for such a time as this’ to bring others to salvation. This assignment is severely limited if in your life you mirror ‘God in a box.’ Sadly, many Christians live so constrained by the limited perceptions they carry of God that they offer little to others so desperately in need of a Savior.
Do not let others put you in a box. They will surely try to fit you into what is comfortable for them. They will try to place limitations on you so you will conform to their view of God and what they believe He is doing in your life. Gracefully walk away. Again, only God has the first and final say in your life. Do not relinquish that to anyone else.
Live Out of the Box for Your God is Out of the Box!
This week pray about how you perceive God in your life. Pray about how much you really trust Him to move in your life in His time. If you have been keeping God in a box, let Him out now! He moves mightily and swiftly in His time. Know that and know that He is not bound by any constraint for He is God. Let yourself out of the box too. Let yourself out of the box of unbelief, fear, worry and every evil work. God bless you and swiftly bring you out of the box to walk with Him.
Quotes to Ponder This Week
“Ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you.” ~Jesus, Matthew 7:7
“…lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age.” ~Jesus, Matthew 28:20
“But you are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, His own special people, that you may proclaim the praises of Him who called you out of darkness into His marvelous light; who once were not a people but are now the people of god, who had not obtained mercy but now have obtained mercy.” ~1Peter 2:9-10
“Worrying is carrying tomorrow’s load with today’s strength–carrying two days at once. Worrying doesn’t empty tomorrow of its sorrow. It empties today of its strength.” ~Corrie Ten Boom
“Dostoevsky tells of a thief and a harlot waiting together for the end in a dark room. By the light of their last candle they read a tattered Gospel someone has left behind. They come to the story of Lazarus, and they begin to say to each other: “He raised Lazarus from the dead; He can raise us.” ~Talmage C. Johnson, Strength for Service to God and Country, 1942, June 14
A Prayer Request
Thank you for your continued faithfulness to pray. Please keep all who serve our country, our servicemen and women and their families in prayer for salvation and safety. They are our front-line on the battlefield, let us be their front-line in the spirit. Also, let us cover all who have come home wounded that they and their families will receive the kindness, help and support they need to go forward in their lives. God bless all our diplomatic and military personnel and their families. May the Lord keep them safe.
Pray for all throughout the world for hedges of protection against radical Islamic extremists and all forms of terrorism. Pray for Christians who face violence and death for their faith. We have long prayed for spiritual victory over radical Islam in Esther’s Warriors Ministry. We now see the reality of this threat come to the forefront in this time in world history. As Iranians and Islamic extremists are shouting ‘Death to America,’ let us speak life, hope and a return to God in America!
Please pray for all in authority over us, for the full truth to come forth concerning Benghazi. May God richly bless the United States of America, bring to light every single crooked place and keep her safe. The lives lost in Benghazi, the continuing targeting of conservative groups by the Internal Revenue Service, Operation Fast and Furious, the Department of Justice targeting journalists phone records, the National Security Agency overstepping its legal authority are hardly “phony scandals.” We continue to pray for truth to prevail in each of these situations. Pray for the families who have lost loved ones, for those relentlessly targeted and for all of us who are proud to call ourselves American.
May we may arise united once again as One Nation Under God in this auspicious season in our country’s history. These are treacherous times and now more than ever we must maintain our walk with the Lord, saturate this country in prayer and stand for all that is right in America. Fail not in this hour.
Pray for peace in Israel. Pray for the peace of Jerusalem.
On this Flag Day (USA) and birthday of the United States Army please remember and pray for all service men and women and their families. It is their sacrifice that enables us to proudly fly our flag over the land of the free and the home of the brave.
Please Join Me In Prayer
Father God, we thank You for the ultimate price that Jesus paid to set us free. Let us walk in that freedom minute to minute and lead others to You. Help each of us to trust You fully and remove any restrictions in our heart that would keep us from the fullness of Your plan for our life. Place deep in our heart the love of God and love of country that has guided our Nation from its inception. Lead us to pray without ceasing for our brothers and sisters who suffer at the hands of Islamic terrorists. Open the eyes of our leaders to arise in this season to defend the very belief in You upon which our Nation is founded. Thank You for keeping Your hand on America. We humbly pray this in Jesus’ mighty name. Amen and Amen.