At times in our life, we tend to put God in our own proverbial box. Of course, since we are all different so are our boxes. They come in all shapes and sizes just like us. Sometimes we think God is too important for us to approach so we put Him in a huge box that sits above us somewhere in the clouds. We see it occasionally when we look up and acknowledge His existence but don’t really unpack that box as it’s too large and should just stay above us. We think God wouldn’t actually want to help with our problems as they may be too small for Him because He has bigger fish to fry as we say in Texas. Other times, we don’t think we are worthy enough for help and thereby limit God’s capacity to what we perceive He can handle. 

Other times our God box is equivalent to our size, and we interact with Him from time to time, but because He is our size, we mostly ignore Him for a couple of reasons. One is that we don’t think He could help with our problems because we perceive them as being so big. The second reason is if we acknowledge God too often, He might get in our way of living life. Therefore, we shove our God box into a corner and simply move it when it gets in the way again or when we do our spring-cleaning during times of crisis. 

Sometimes we put God in a tiny box, and He isn’t unpacked until major events like weddings, funerals, births, or holidays mainly Christmas and Easter. We keep the box near us but do not open it because our problem seems too large that we do not believe He can solve it. That size box may not be able to handle the huge problem in our life so why bother. In essence, all of these are examples of defining God by our own limited knowledge and understanding and then relegating His ability to deal with our problem to the size of the box we put Him in according to our own limitations and definitions.

What we don’t realize is while we’re waiting - God is always working. We may not see it, but He could be preparing other people or orchestrating other situations for us. Think about the children of Israel. They suffered as slaves for many years waiting for God to send a deliverer. God began to work on Moses and when He told him that he would be their deliverer instead of immediately responding, Moses questioned his ability and credentials. Moses told God he couldn’t do it because he wasn’t well spoken or strong enough. So, while the Israelites waited for help, God was working in the background. They were in essence waiting on Moses to get over his fear and insecurity. 

The Israelites could have had their deliver much sooner had Moses not pushed back thinking he wasn’t worthy. You could actually be waiting on someone else to obey their instructions from God which will help pave the way for you. Or are you the one holding up a plan for someone else because you don’t think you’re qualified when God directs you? Maybe you’ve put yourself in a box and said because of your education, socioeconomic status, gender, talents, or abilities that you’re not able to do what God has for you.  

John 10:10 says, “The thief comes to steal, and to kill and to destroy: I have come that they may have life and have it more abundantly.” The Father sometimes works in NOT so mysterious ways, but do we stop long enough to recognize it?  We don’t want to find ourselves saying, “I think I got a glimpse of the way my life should or could be. God tried to show me, but I wasn’t paying attention.” There are those who claim it is impossible to learn what we are meant to do or meant to be but the folks who say that tend to be living for a God who they believe shouts and completely miss the One who whispers. God will accomplish His purposes with or without us.

We always want mountaintop experiences, yet life exists in the valley. Where is the lushness of green grass? Always in the valley. My pastor says, “Think about it – there is no life at the top of a mountain, and it is even hard to breath so we can’t live there on an ongoing basis. We need to learn to live in the valleys and yet appreciate and yearn for mountaintop experiences. Sometimes we think a season in our life is the worst thing that can happen to us, but if we allow the Lord to work, it may actually be a good thing, but we just won’t know it until we get to the other side. Let us be diligent to learn what God may be teaching us during the wilderness moments. The sooner we learn it, the sooner we can leave it! May we say, “Lord, please never answer my prayer if it isn’t good for me.” You probably have a much bigger solution for me if I could just take you out of my box.