God In A Box
By: Kristen L. McNulty
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I don't know what kind of background you have, but I've seen many Christians and many churches and many youth groups that try to put God in box. By putting God in a box I mean that we try to determine when God should move and where. This is wrong. Our God is bigger than big, so who are we to determine where and when He's welcome to move?
Imagine how this looks to Him. It's like we say "OK God, you can move at church, or during Praise at youth group, but don't even think about moving when I'm hanging with my friends or when we are having our game time at youth." Who are we to be so bold and demanding? God is willing to confine Himself to time and space in order to move with and through us and we say no. When God is willing to lower Himself to us, who are we to refuse and say wait until I'm in Sunday service, but even at Sunday service, you can only move if I'm out of church in an hour. When we act like this, we are reversing the roles and trying to become a god ourselves instead of focusing on the one who is God.
Let me use an illustration: Let's say you get a call from a famous actor and he tells you that he'd like to meet you in an hour for lunch. You're not going to tell him, "I'm sorry, but I'm chilling with my friends, maybe later". You're going to leap at the opportunity and you're going to spend the next hour preparing yourself to meet this famous actor. When he walks in a couple of minutes late, you're not going to say anything and while you are having lunch with him, you are going to be grateful for the opportunity rather than upset that you had to leave your friends to have this lunch. The same should go with God. When God decides to move, we should be ready and willing. Our hearts should always be prepared for God to come down and move in amazing ways and when He comes we should be grateful instead of frustrated. God moves on His time and at His will and we know that He loves us, so wouldn't He move when He knows it's best? Think about how many times we reject God because it's not a good time for us, yet when we need Him to be there, He better be? We are the ones who should be waiting on Him. What a scary world it would be if we controlled when God moves rather than God deciding when we should move.
It's time for us to surrender all to the all powerful and all knowing God and it's time to tear down the dividing walls that try to stop God from moving. If you really want God to move in your life, all you have to do is allow Him to. Be prepared whether it is during church, at school, at youth, or even in the middle of a social outing. Have the attitude of the heart that doesn't care where God moves or when, as long as He moves.
This devotional was aired as a part of the Making A Difference Christian Radio Show.