God is Bigger Than Our Stupidity!

How many times have you said to yourself; “That was stupid, God is never going to forgive me for this.”, or “I screwed up big this time, not even God can get me out of this.”

Been there, done that!

Hold on though…  You are talking about a God who created the universe, a God who breathed man into being; and you don’t think He can handle your little mistake?  He is so much bigger than that!

You don’t think that God already knew that you were going to make that mistake?  This is the God who knew that Peter, one of His strongest disciples, was going to reject him (Matthew 26:34), who knew that He was going to be rejected by his own family (Luke 4:24).  Stop thinking that what you do is a surprise to God and that He doesn’t know how to handle it!

The problem with our vision of God (and I am definitely guilty of this) is that we limit Him by putting Him in the same little box that we have put ourselves.  We only allow God to do the things that we can think up, to solve the problems in a way that are logical to us.  Talk about stupid!

“”For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways,” declares the LORD.”  Isaiah 55:8

We have become so arrogant as a race that we believe that if we can’t think it up, it can’t be done.  We have put God in a little box on the mantle and we show Him off to all our friends.  But when we really need Him, when we make mistakes, when we sin, when we don’t know how to dig ourselves out of the hole we are in, we walk past Him and wish that He could help.  I am thankful everyday that God is bigger than that, bigger than me.

We have to remember that God isn’t just sitting around watching us screw up and saying, “Oh that sucks, wish I could help, too bad for him!”  He already knew that we were going to make that mistake.  He knows all the sins that we have done and the sins that we are going to do, and He died for us anyway!

“But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.”  Romans 5:8

I need to take a step back for a second and clarify something.  I am not saying that God is going to just fix all our problems or come running to our rescue every time we mess up.  Nothing we do is without consequences, and God is not above letting us learn lessons the hard way.  That is part of being human and what makes us stronger in Him.  But he is never going to stop loving us, or fighting for us to follow Him and have the blessings that He has planned for us.

Our relationship with God is a process.  God knows that we are not perfect (he made us that way!), and He knows that we are going to make bad decisions and do things even though He tells us not to.  It’s like we are trying to get from one room to another by walking through the wall.  We run headfirst into the wall and getting knocked to the ground.  We get up, think about it, and then run back into the wall from a different angle!  We get up again, and run into the wall harder!  The thing is, eventually we are going to figure out that we should just walk through the door!  God knows exactly how many times we are going to have to run into the wall before we figure it out, and every time we mess up He is smiling because He knows we are one step closer to figuring things out and finding the door.

God has a plan for us today, and that plan is a good one.

“For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the Lord, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.”  Jeremiah 29:11

His plan is not dependent on us being perfect or making all the right choices.  God knows that we are going to be imperfect and make so many wrong choices, and yet he has a wonderful plan for us anyway!

So remember that the next time you walk into that wall, or make a bone-head decision that you think is irreparable, God is bigger than your stupidity!  Let Him use that mistake to bring you closer to Him.

How do you define yourself?

One of our pastors gave an excellent talk today, and while I can’t possibly recreate it here one thing did stick with me.  He asked how you make yourself stand out, how you define who you are?

This made me think because, I have always made myself stand out by the things that I do. I try to be the man who knows how to do a little of everything.  Someone who does all the cool things, rock climbing, kayaking, skiing, flying rc helicopters, martial arts, etc.  That is how I define myself and how I make myself stand out and get noticed.

What I realized today was that I don’t want to stand out for the hobbies that I do, or the sports that I play.  I want to stand out, to be defined, by being a strong man of God.  By loving my children and my wife in a way that is different from the rest of the world, in God’s way.  What better way to stand out, to be remembered.

I realize that it is not the most PC way to be recognized, and that it probably will not get me into as many circles as the other stuff, but is that so bad?  Is it not a blessing to be excluded from those groups and activities that are not placing a focus on God and a priority on being a godly man?  I think that too often we, myself most definitely included, get so hung up on wanting to fit in that we don’t take a step back and see what we are trying to fit in to.  It feels great to be accepted by a person, or group of people but, if they aren’t accepting you with your faith in Jesus as part of the package do you really want to be accepted by them at all?  Do your close friends, the people you hang out with frequently, even know that you are a Christian?  More importantly, do they truly understand that Jesus is your savior and what that has and does mean in your life?

Think about how you want to be known by others, how you want to be remembered.  Is it for the worldly things that you can do or that you know?  Or is it for being the upright, strong man of God that you are striving to be?  Once you figure that out (and I think we all know that the right choice is an easy one), then figure out how to make the daily choices that will make you stand out for the right reasons!