God In A Box

God In A Box

I can still remember the time that I realized my box for God was not big enough.

Wait—What?

It works like this: you have your idea of what God is like and you never let your idea of Him change. You’ve “built a box” for Him and you can’t imagine Him ever being any bigger or better than your own idea of Him. It’s pretty silly but we all do it. I didn’t realize I was doing it either.

I was young and just out of seminary, living in Colorado. Some friends bought some land and ordered a prefab house. They spent all summer building a foundation for it.

Then the surprise ... the house arrived and the driver went right past them to the vacant lot next door. He insisted that he was at the right address.

After a few phone calls, in a gut-wrenching moment of realization, my friend discovered that he had spent the entire summer building on the wrong lot!

We called a prayer meeting and prayers went around the room:

"God, fix this!"

"Lord, help us!"

"Jesus, intervene!"

Then the prayer came to an older man sitting at the table. I can still hear his voice as he prayed. He said, "God, we know you are not surprised by this. Help us to know what you are doing so we can get in line with your plan."

Wow! Had I even considered that? No! My box was not that big. In MY box, God was going to have to do a bunch of stuff to fix our problem.

Does that sound like God to you? I had to ask myself, is my God in control here or not? Prayer is not supposed to be me telling God how I want things.

So, then, why do we pray? Prayer is for OUR benefit—for us to tell God that we trust Him to do what is best and for us to get in line with His plan.

As it turned out, our friends contacted the owner of the other parcel and they willingly exchanged properties. Everything worked out fine. But I learned, that day, that my box for God is actually a pretty silly idea. We can’t contain Him. He is God.

He never moved or changed during the ordeal. He was always in control. It was my box that had to change.

It was too small. That’s how I learned about God and boxes.

He is God.

Acts 7:48

"The Most High does not dwell in houses made by human hands..."