How can YOU limit God?

[RainbowJingles]

God is limitless.  And yet, somehow, WE - finite humans that we are - can limit His power to perform great works.
Jason preached a sermon that has me pondering.  I'll post the notes here for you.

Ponder with me...  how do YOU limit God?  And how can you TAKE OFF the limits you have put on the ALL mighty God??

[RainbowJingles]

Revelation 1:8 says, "I am Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the ending, saith the Lord, which is, and which was, and which is to come, the Almighty."
God is Almighty.
Jeremiah 32:17 reads, "Ah Lord GOD! behold, thou hast made the heaven and the earth by thy great power and stretched out arm, and there is nothing too hard for thee:"
There is nothing too hard for God.
God is the God who, in Genesis chapter 1, spoke the universe into existence.
He spoke.  Light.
He spoke.  Stars.
He spoke.  Sun.
When He was on earth, He spoke.  Healing.
He is an all-powerful, all-mighty God.  We should be able to say that He has no limits.
BUT...
Psalms 78: 40-42 says, "How oft did they provoke him in the wilderness, and grieve him in the desert!  41 Yea, they turned back and tempted God, and limited the Holy One of Israel.  42 They remembered not his hand, nor the day when he delivered them from the enemy."
Israel limited the God who created the universe.  They were the only things that stood in His way.  Israel managed to STOP GOD!
God had brought them out of Egypt...  across the Red Sea...  but they forgot His deliverance from slavery.
Ten out of twelve spies took their problem out of God's hands and put it in their own.  Two of the spies knew God had no limits, because they had given HIM their problem.
Ten said their problem was bigger than the God who created them.
We say there is power in Jesus' name.
We say God is great.
We say God can do anything...
...except take care of MY problem.
Like Israel, we grieve and limit God.  By definition, when we "grieve" God, we make Him so sorrowful that He cannot do anything.
How much did God want to take Israel into the Promised Land?  Yet Israel stopped Him.  They limited Him with their lack of faith.
Even when God was limited in the camp of the Israelites, there were still miracles.
Shoes didn't wear out.
Water came from a rock.
Manna came from heaven.
If God did those things when he was "LIMITED," what could he have done if the limits had been removed?  What can He do for us when we remove His limits?
40 years – limited.
40 years – provision.  Healing.  Miraculous.
WHILE He was LIMITED!
What could He have done WITHOUT LIMITS in those 40 years?
The spies of Jericho heard Rahab's version of the story.  When the people of Jericho heard Israel had crossed the Red Sea, they were afraid.  They were ready to flee.  They knew that Israel's God was powerful.  And yet, for 40 years, Israel limited God.  Jericho stood for 40 years longer than it needed to stand.
We do the same thing.  We limit God.  We tell God our problem is bigger than He is: "God, you just don't understand..."
We limit Him...  Yet He still blesses.  And there is still provision.
But there is so much MORE.
Caleb said, "if the Lord delights in us, HE has already defeated the giants..."
Nothing is too big.
Yet some still think God cannot save them because their sin is bigger than God.
Some think He can't heal their body because their sickness is bigger than God.
Some think that God cannot provide because their bills are bigger than God.
These circumstances are big.  But GOD is GREATER!
In Jeremiah chapter 32:17, it says that there is nothing too hard for God.  And then verse 27 asks, "Is there anything too hard for God?"
And God is asking us today, "Is there anything too hard for me?"
Israel said that they served the biggest God there was, but yet they turned around and said that God was not bigger than their enemies.
God did amazing things for Israel, but yet the whole time, He was "limited."
What happens when the limits are taken off?
God was limited when He gave manna from heaven.
God was limited, but He sent quail enough to feed an entire nation.
If that is what a limited God can do, I want to know what He will do when I take the limits off?
What does it mean when God is NOT limited?
Caleb – one of the two who said God COULD – killed all the giants.  He had told Israel from the beginning that God was bigger.
Joshua – who said we are more than able – led the entire nation to victory.
Caleb – an old man (80 years old) – and his God wiped out ALL of the giants who had put fear into an entire nation and plagued them for years!
Stop telling God the He cannot fix/heal/save...
Stop telling God that your sickness is bigger than He is.
Stop telling God that your bills are bigger than He is.
Stop telling God that your problems are bigger than He is.
Take the limits OFF God!
If He can do the miraculous when He is limited, just wait...  when you remove His limits...
Bring Him your problems.  Give them to Him.  Take OFF the limits.
For 40 years, God wanted to do so much more, but Israel wouldn't allow Him.
God is asking, "Is there anything too hard for Me?"
STOP ANSWERING YES!
He wants to do so much more.
He wants to blow your mind.
But He waits for you to give Him your problems.
For 40 years, Israel believed that God was smaller than the giants.  And then God used an 80 year old man to wipe out those giants!
Give Him your problems.  He is bigger than them.  He is the ALL mighty.
God was grieved – so sorrowful that He could not help Israel.  He mourned what He wanted to do.  Israel wouldn't allow Him to work the way He wanted to work.
God is BIGGER...  and He wants to do so much more than He already has for you.  So take the limits OFF your God.
Your problem may be as big as the universe in your eyes, but your God – who CREATED the universe – is BIGGER.
Take the limits OFF!

[clark thompson]

I think we limit God sometimes to understand Him which we truly will not be able to understand every thing about God but can understand all we need to know about God though.

[Assuredbyfaith]

I know it's been a while since this was posted...however, it was something I needed to read...something I needed to evaluate! Thanks for the thoughts, truth, and blessings....