Limiting God

These words went through my mind as I was heading into work: “Don’t limit God by limiting yourself.” Sometimes words reach out and grab me. This is one of those moments. It was a God- kind of moment.

Last night I was watching a sermon called “When God says Let Go.” It was such a powerful message and reminder in my own life about hanging on too tightly to my own understanding of how things should unfold moving forward and really trusting God with the details. Several months ago, my husband and I received a text that said they had been to a conference and were introduced to a 6-word challenge. They shared a scripture reference that included God’s 6 word promise but also included our responsibility before the promise could manifest. Their challenge was “in all your ways acknowledge Him.” The promise was “And He shall direct your path.”  I adopted my own 6 words that day… “Lean not on your own understanding” it includes the same promise… “And He shall direct your path.” I typed it out and put it in a place where I could be constantly reminded of my part in the promise.

This morning, I was reminded about a skit I was in when I was in High school. I’ve been reminded about this skit several times in my life. It’s amazing how God knows me so well that He would have me perform this skit and use it as a reminder throughout my own life. He knows what we struggle with.

In this skit I was mountain climbing and got detached from the equipment holding me up and keeping me from falling to my death. The only thing keeping me alive was the end of the rope I was holding. I found myself holding the rope and crying out to God… “Help! Help!” In the skit, the voice of God answered me with this response… “Do you trust me?” I asked God to repeat Himself… He said it again… “Do you trust me?”  I responded… “Of course I trust you, God.” He said, “If you trust me, let go of the rope.” Of course, in the skit I was going over all the obvious possibilities and reasoning in my mind why I shouldn’t let go of the rope. I was truly at the end of my rope. My own understanding was that I would obviously fall to my death if I let go. But in the skit God said again… If you trust me, let go of the rope. Finally, I made the decision to trust God and let go of the rope. That was the end of the skit. I had to trust that God would take of me.

God has been talking to me over the past few years about our future. I couldn’t be more excited with anticipation. However, lately I’ve gotten caught up in my own understanding. In Lori-like fashion, my overthinking gets in the way. I have questions and don’t understand what I should do next. I feel like I need more answers. I wish I understood more. The fact of the matter is, the more I trust God, the fewer details I need.

The more I trust, the less I need to know.

Now that I’ve been gently reminded of this important detail, God is telling me yet again, “Let go of the rope.” It’s one thing to say I trust God and another whole thing to live it out by letting go of my own understanding and the rope.

I’ve learned so much on this area of letting go and trusting God, yet often I feel I’m at square one.

Lord, help me to truly lean on your understanding, not mine. Help me to trust you so much that I don’t need the details.