Don’t Limit God
“You’ve got to have a dream! If you don’t have a dream, how’re you gonna have a dream come true?”
And when you begin to dream, don’t think too small. Dare to dream big!
So often we are content to dream small. To play it safe rather than going for broke. Rather safe than sorry, after all! And I wonder to myself how much blessing I have robbed myself of, because of my small thinking.
Let me share with you a verse that all dreamers know and love: “Now to him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to his power that is at work within us, to him be glory.” (Ephesians 3:20–21 NIV11)
Praying for Mountains, Not Potholes
Wow!
God is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine! Does that not give you hope for your dreams? Does that not make you think - my dreams are too small?
I read these words in a book the other day and they have stuck with me: We are not motivated to pray because our view of God is too small. We are praying for God to repair potholes when we need him to move mountains. We pray for God to help us meet our budget when we should be praying for God to unleash a tidal wave of generosity that will advance the kingdom further and faster. We pray for God to give leaders wisdom in their decision making, but we don’t pray for God to give our leaders a vision that is bigger and grander than our capacities. We keep asking God to help us achieve manageable goals; we need to be asking God to relocate mountains!
Are you there? Praying for God to repair potholes when you need him to move mountains? Praying for enough when God could give you abundantly more? Praying for the minimum, instead of a bigger vision, a bigger opportunity, a bigger capacity?
One of the great Old Testament prophets was Elisha, who came after Elijah. One event in his life has taught me to dream big and not limit God, it’s in 2 Kings 4. One of his prophet friends dies and leaves his wife with nothing, and so the creditors come to take her sons and slaves away. All she has is a little jar of olive oil. So Elishah says this to her: ““Go around and ask all your neighbors for empty jars. Don’t ask for just a few. Then go inside and shut the door behind you and your sons. Pour oil into all the jars, and as each is filled, put it to one side.” (2 Kings 4:3 NIV11). So she does that, and next thing she has so much oil that she can pay off all her debts.
Unleashing God's Abundance in 2024
The key phrase there is “don’t ask for just a few”. Don’t limit God! Dream big! Ask for an abundance, not just the minimum! Jesus said he came to give us life in abundance! Not to the minimum.
How sad when we limit God and ask for just a few.
If we believe that God is “able to do immeasurably more than we can ask or imagine”, are we stepping out in faith and believing He will do great things? Or are we limiting him?
God wants to do something GREAT through you in 2024. He has lives to change through you. He has eternally significant things for you to do.
Don’t limit him. Dream big, and go for it!
