Hope Without Limits

Do you ever feel guilty about enjoy a beautiful sunset or sunrise?  No.  Why is that? Because you know there is enough for everybody.  No matter how much you enjoy it, it doesn’t take away from anyone else’s enjoyment.  It’s big enough for everyone and there will always be more.  As my Mom would have said, “Don’t be a silly goose, enjoy it.”

Well, that’s the way it is with God’s love, God’s hope and all the blessings that he has for each of us.  Do you know how BIG His blessings are?

As I was walking yesterday morning the stars were still out and I looked up and saw the big dipper.  What came to me in the that moment is that our Heavenly Father created the big dipper to be a testimony to how big a scoop He needs to pour out His blessings.  I just stared at it.

Photo from: www.scienceinthebible.net

It is so huge and that scoop is not the total of what He has, that is what He uses to scoop out all the blessings that He has created since eternity began to pour out on those whom He loves; which is everybody!

The only catch is we have to say YES, I want them; YES I believe those blessings are for me.  We can’t buy into the lies that there is not enough for everybody; that I’m not good enough for God to bless; that God doesn’t love me because of the way my circumstances look.  It’s not true.  Those are all lies of the enemy because He doesn’t want you to know the big dipper that God has to pour out blessings into your life.   How can I say those things are lies?  Because of what Ephesians 1:4-6 tells me:

Long before he laid down earth’s foundations,
he had us in mind, had settled on us as the focus of his love,
to be made whole and holy by his love.
Long, long ago he decided to adopt us into his family through Jesus Christ.
(What pleasure he took in planning this!)
He wanted us to enter into the celebration of
his lavish gift-giving by the hand of his beloved Son.

He gave His only Son to open up the supply for that big dipper to pour into your life, and to pour into my life so that we could have all, all that He has purposed for us since before eternity began; all that He created that was good (Gen 1:31).

As if that wasn’t enough, the way God feels about you never changes.  He is the same yesterday, today and forever (Heb 13:8) and absolutely nothing as in nothing living or dead, angelic or demonic, today or tomorrow, high or low, thinkable or unthinkable—absolutely nothing can get between us and God’s love because of the way that Jesus has embraced us (Rom 8:39 The Message).

You may be thinking, that all sounds lovely but what about all the “doo-doo” (keeping that G-rating here 🙂 ) in my life.   Fair question.  Just this week I had fresh revelation about Romans 8:28-29 where we are told that:

²⁸ Furthermore, we know that God causes everything
to work together for the good
of those who love God
and are called in accordance with his purpose;
²⁹ because those whom he knew in advance,
he also determined in advance
would be conformed to the pattern of his Son,
so that he might be the firstborn among many brothers;

Why would God tells us that He can work everything to our good?

Because He knew that in this fallen world in which we live there is going to be things that are ugly and hurtful because there is still an enemy prowling around seeking those whom he may devour (1 Peter 5:8).  But God has promised us that He can turn those things around – whatever it is in your life whether you have been wounded, hurt, disappointed, discouraged, sick, betrayed, or rejected are covered in “all things”.  He doesn’t say OK I can only turn certain things around but rather He can turn ALL things around to make us more Christ-like.  To make it possible for us to be able to live in that place like Jesus did constantly aware of the Father, of His love, of what He is doing, of His power, of that fact that He’s got your back and He wants to see you thrive.  That is Father God. That is what He wants.  Jesus knew that beyond the shadow of any doubt; our Heavenly Father wants us to be consumed by that truth as well.  That is why He has made us these promises that say I can do this for you.  I know where you live.  I know what it is like, but I can do this for you.

A friend just shared a Jeff Foxworthy quote with me that pretty much sums it up for me:

Jeff says he believes God gave the world children
so we could see how He feels about us.

“I know when my kids are laughing
and my kids are happy, it thrills me,” Jeff says.
“It just thrills me all the way through and through.
I think He feels that way about us.
If we believe what we say,
we should have a smile on our face all the time.”

So what do you say?  This Easter, do you want to get rid of that silly goose syndrome?  I know I do.

I know there is enough for everybody, and that my opening myself to receiving God’s love and the blessings He has for me does nothing to take anything away from you.   And, you know what … there is even more than that!  There is restoration for what has been lost or destroyed (Joel 2:25).  There is exceedingly, abundantly above all we can even dare to dream to ask (Eph 3:20).

Now that is definitely unconditional hope!  Happy Easter!