Does God have boundaries?
Numbers 11:23The Lord said to Moses, “Has my arm lost its power? Now you will see whether or not my word comes true!”
We find it easy to look at our circumstances and declare them to be beyond God’s ability to handle. While there are countless boundaries in our lives that limit our control over our circumstances, God has no such limitations.
Matthew 7:7-11“Keep on asking, and you will receive what you ask for. . . . You parents—if your children ask for a loaf of bread, do you give them a stone instead? Or if they ask for a fish, do you give them a snake? Of course not! So if you sinful people know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your heavenly Father give good gifts to those who ask him.”
Matthew 17:20“You don’t have enough faith,” Jesus told them. “I tell you the truth, if you had faith even as small as a mustard seed, you could say to this mountain, ‘Move from here to there,’ and it would move. Nothing would be impossible.”
As long as we assume that our faith needs to be strong to have a powerful effect, we will see few results from it. Prayer isn’t a matter of wishing harder or speaking more eloquently—it’s a matter of simple trust, like when children ask their father or mother for food.
Luke 22:42“Father, if you are willing, please take this cup of suffering away from me. Yet I [Jesus] want your will to be done, not mine.”
James 1:17Whatever is good and perfect is a gift coming down to us from God our Father, who created all the lights in the heavens. He never changes or casts a shifting shadow.
James 4:2-3You don’t have what you want because you don’t ask God for it. And even when you ask, you don’t get it because your motives are all wrong—you want only what will give you pleasure.
1 John 5:14-15We are confident that he [God] hears us whenever we ask for anything that pleases him. And since we know he hears us when we make our requests, we also know that he will give us what we ask for.
The gifts God gives are always good. However, the gifts we ask for aren’t always good—or, even when they are, they might not bring good results in the end. Like Jesus, we should pray with a confident faith, and like Jesus, we should desire God’s will for us above all else.
Matthew 19:26Jesus looked at them intently and said, “Humanly speaking, it is impossible. But with God everything is possible.”
Many of the things we consider impossible actually are impossible for us to do (at least without help). Having God as our helper and guide allows us to step confidently into the realm of the impossible. We can joyfully let him decide what is possible and impossible.
Mark 9:22-24“Have mercy on us and help us, if you can.” “What do you mean, ‘If I can’?” Jesus asked. “Anything is possible if a person believes.” The father instantly cried out, “I do believe, but help me overcome my unbelief!”
Ephesians 3:20All glory to God, who is able, through his mighty power at work within us, to accomplish infinitely more than we might ask or think.
Never assume that God is limited by boundaries. When we doubt his ability to meet our needs, we are putting limiting boundaries around an almighty God. God can accomplish more than we can imagine or dare to hope for.
Numbers 23:19“God is not a man, so he does not lie. He is not human, so he does not change his mind. Has he ever spoken and failed to act? Has he ever promised and not carried it through?”
Romans 5:8God showed his great love for us by sending Christ to die for us while we were still sinners.
Romans 8:38I am convinced that nothing can ever separate us from God’s love. Neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither our fears for today nor our worries about tomorrow—not even the powers of hell can separate us from God’s love.
Hebrews 13:8Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today, and forever.
James 1:13God is never tempted to do wrong, and he never tempts anyone else.
God has one great boundary he can never cross: He will never contradict his perfectly good, holy, and loving character. We can always trust him because he will never change.
