God is Bigger

21 Day Prayer Expiriment – Day 9

We can’t help but come to God in humility (as we talked about in Day 8) when the dream is bigger than we are!   When told by God to ask for whatever he wanted, why did Solomon, without hesitation, say, “Give me wisdom and knowledge that I may lead this people” (see 2 Chronicles 1:7-10)?  Because the task was beyond Solomon and his natural abilities.  He knew he was never going to be able to lead God’s people without the wisdom of God.  It was too big and they were too many.  He said himself they were a people “as numerous as the dust of the earth.”  Solomon was probably feeling overwhelmed and unqualified.  Similar to Moses when God told him he was going to lead the children ofIsrael out of Egypt.  He stammered.  He waffled.  He made up excuses as to why God had chosen the wrong man.  This is often the case when you are doing something for God that’s bigger than you.  But God doesn’t call the qualified he qualifies the called (The Circle Maker by Mark Batterson pp. 76-77)

 

In 2004, I had an “O Crap” moment.  I was asked to come and lead a network of over 25 campus ministries across the Northeast.  Gina and me both knew it was God and so we moved to the Rochester,NY Area as missionaries to begin working with the ministry.  There was no salary, no benefits, and no security.  We had to trust God.  We had to raise money.  We had to lead a large group of people spread out across four states and dozens of campuses. It didn’t take long to realize this task was beyond us!  Up until that time, I had only led a single youth ministry and a college ministry.  How was I going to lead a network of local church based campus ministries spread out all over the Northeast?  Where do I start?  What do I do?  On a much smaller scale, I felt like Moses.  Moses was called out from the desert where he was leading sheep to being in charge of leading God’s chosen nation of Israel; an estimated 2-3 million people.  I was designing septic tanks in rural areas of New York State and leading a small campus ministry for my church when God called me to lead this network of campus ministries.  My boundaries and responsibilities just got exponentially bigger.  I felt like Moses, at least a little bit!  I quickly realized I was in over my head and began to cry out to God for wisdom.

In addition to my time with God in the early morning, God led me to pray for one solid hour when I stepped foot in my office each day.  Although it was hard to come in the office and put aside all the work I needed to do, this quickly changed my perspective.  Things began to happen that I couldn’t have made happen if I wanted to.  I was receiving phone calls from people I had not been able to connect with for weeks or months.  I was having God ideas on how to connect and grow our leaders and groups, about what themes to focus on for our semi-annual conferences, and hope and encouragement began to come to me.

 

When the task is beyond our abilities, we need to tap into God’s supernatural abilities. 

 

Solomon did not have the wisdom to govern God’s people or to build the temple for God, but he found out when God calls, God qualifies.  Ask yourself the question; are you doing and believing for something that is too big for you to pull off on your own?  If you’re not, it may not be God.  Where do you need God’s intervention?

• A Marriage in need of restoration
• An impossible or crappy job situation you need wisdom about
• A financial situation beyond your means
• A missions trip God has asked you to take that doesn’t look feasible
• A calling that you know your family will reject
• A step of faith that is beyond your natural abilities, like planting a church

 

Is there any limit to God’s power?  The late A.W. Tozer believed that a low view of God is the cause of a hundred lesser evils, but a high view of God is the solution to ten thousand temporal problems.  In his book, The Circle Maker, Mark Batterson poses this question, “Are your problems bigger than God or is God bigger than your problems?  Our biggest problem is our small view of God.” (pg. 71)

 

Today, if you are in over your head, take it to God, cry out to Him, and put on His power and His ability.  If you aren’t in over your head, you better start examining your life.  There is something more God has for you.