It’s easy to diminish God when you’re trying to determine His measurements. Usually we end up doing this because we put too much emphasis on trying to make Him more understandable to us. We look about for some way that we can put Him in terms that we can comprehend more easily, terms that can offer us comfort.
But, when we attempt to make God comfortable to our human senses, we invariably set out to make Him proportional to us. We scale down His size and put limits on His definition. We occupy His sphere with rules and regulations that not only confine our perception of Him, they confine Him! He is presented with a hundred million obstacles to touching our heart.
The relationship between us becomes defined wholly by our expectations of Him. We hold ourselves aloof from Him because we’re afraid to encounter a part of Him that doesn’t fit with what we’ve decided He should be. We insist His interactions with us be scheduled and orderly things, governed by a release form that’s properly notarized.
Why do we imprison our relationship with God like this? Why do we make ourselves content with being safe on our terms? Why won’t we let God form the lines of our boundaries?
It could be because we are cold toward God; we have not yet fully surrendered our lives to Him. We want the ease of expressing Christian thoughts without the consequences of acting them out. We want a predictable life–one that suits our wishes and doesn’t get too dangerously close to His wishes. We want control. And we think we can have it by putting God in a cage. How sad.
Whatever happened to enjoying the pizazz of God? What about believing and trusting in God because He is bigger than us, not smaller? If your spiritual yardstick and chalk line are getting you frustrated, then for goodness sake, lose them! There is no way they are helping you with your relationship with God. Your only options are parting with your ways or rejecting His ways. Unless you choose the first option, for the entirety of your life you will be only just beginning with God; always missing the best part of Him; always ruled by the fears that we won’t let Him master. Truly, the essence of our delight in Him is that in all things He is so much bigger and better than us!
At Home with God 