Box WORD PICTURE: Box
Scriptural Reference: Isaiah 55:8
"For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways," declares the LORD.
1. Have someone(s) read the scripture from various translations.
2. Showing a small box with a lid, read the scripture again and then say that the subject today is the danger in trying to squash God into a box.
3. My sharing, offered to spark sharing by others.
What I Shared
My sharing starts with hearing my doctor say the words MULTIPLE SCLEROSIS. The next minute, I felt God saying something I thought was weird:
“Don’t put Me in a box!”
You see, I’d been quietly thinking that my faith was somewhat lacking because for any TRUE BELIEVER, speaking the truth would be to command the disease to up and leave. Thankfully, God reminded me that “His thoughts are not like our thoughts --His ways are not like our ways. Just as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are His ways higher than our ways and His thoughts higher than our thoughts.” Clearly, God did not want me waving His Word around like it was a magic wand.
So, I was out walking my dog in the middle of a field one morning, when the Lord brought a picture of an EGG to mind. Now this was not a raw egg used in cooking. I saw a glass Russian egg, one decorated with gold and jewels, a precious keepsake. I realized that God was telling me: “That’s how I feel about you -- you are as precious and treasured as that fragile jeweled egg -- so why are you throwing stones at yourself?”
I repented, then I felt further direction from the Lord. “That’s okay,” God seemed to say. “Just catch those stones, then turn around and give them all to Me.” That’s what I’ve been doing ever since -- (1) bringing Him ARMLOADS of stones -- and (2) giving myself injections of medication for MS. The Lord says “It’s good, God stuff” -- that it keeps the enemy from coming back seven times worse. He says we’re “SEALING THE HEALING.”
Clearly, God breaks all the rules and all the barriers as far as I’m concerned. I know now FIRST-HAND that His ways are higher than my ways, and therefore, I will be unable at some point, to understand. Through this whole thing, God has taught me to trust Him like Job did: no matter WHAT ! Because if I put God in a box, it could end up being a coffin!
Do you ever try to stuff God into a box? What happens?
All Scripture references from the New International Version of the Bible (NIV).
Copyright by Whitney McKendree Moore, March 2008