When You Can’t See a Way Forward, Take Your Limits Off God
Some of the hardest seasons in life are difficult not simply because of what is happening, but because we cannot see how anything good could possibly come from it.
We look at our circumstances, our limitations, our mistakes, our resources, or the clock and conclude that there simply isn’t a way. But sometimes the greatest limitation isn’t what stands in front of us. It’s the limits we have unintentionally placed on what God can do with it.
Original Drive Episode: #275 — Take Your Limits Off God
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What This Resource Is About
Before Kurt Warner became a Super Bowl champion and NFL MVP, he was stocking cans on grocery-store shelves.
It is one of those stories that sounds better once you know the ending.
When you already know that Warner eventually became one of football’s great underdog stories, the years of rejection, disappointment, uncertainty, and stocking groceries somehow make sense. They become part of the story.
But imagine living them before you know the ending.
That is where faith becomes something more than a nice idea.
Kurt Warner certainly had talent. He worked hard. He had ambition and drive. But what has always stood out to me about his story is his faith—the belief that his current circumstances did not define what God might still be able to do with his life.
Scripture is filled with stories like that.
Sarah was too old.
Moses didn’t think he could speak.
Gideon thought he was too insignificant.
The disciples didn’t have enough food.
There weren’t enough fish.
There wasn’t enough strength, enough time, enough ability, enough evidence, or enough reason to believe that what God had promised could actually happen.
And yet again and again, God seems to say, in effect:
Take your limits off Me.
We often put limits on God’s power, but we can also limit His love, His concern for us, His ability to reach us, His willingness to help us, and perhaps most often, His timing.
We decide something should have happened by now.
We decide an opportunity has passed.
We decide the damage is too great, the odds are too long, or the road has become too difficult.
The problem is that when we limit God, we are really limiting ourselves.
I once heard President Russell M. Nelson use the image of binoculars. When you look through binoculars, your limited natural vision is joined with something that allows you to see much farther than you could on your own.
Faith can work like that.
My perspective is limited to what I can see today. God sees the entire landscape.
That doesn’t mean every story ends exactly the way we want. Faith is not a guarantee that God will give us our preferred outcome on our preferred schedule. But it does mean I can stop assuming that because I cannot see a way, there is no way.
Some of the most important people in scripture were underdogs.
David standing in front of Goliath certainly was.
So was Esther.
So was Gideon.
So were fishermen staring at thousands of hungry people and a completely inadequate amount of food.
And perhaps that is why I love this idea so much:
Destiny belongs to the underdogs.
Not because underdogs suddenly become powerful enough on their own, but because God has a long history of doing remarkable things through people whose circumstances seem to say that remarkable things should not be possible.
Key Takeaways
Your present circumstances do not determine what is still possible. What you can see today is only part of the story.
We can unintentionally put limits on God. We may believe He is powerful generally while quietly deciding that our particular situation is too complicated, too late, or too far gone.
God’s timing may be different from ours. Delay does not necessarily mean denial, abandonment, or lack of concern.
Faith expands our perspective. Like binoculars, it allows our limited view to be joined with trust in someone who sees much farther than we do.
Being the underdog does not disqualify you. Scripture repeatedly shows God working through people who appeared too weak, too ordinary, too late, or too unlikely.
There may be something in your life right now for which you cannot see a path forward.
You don’t have to pretend you can.
But perhaps you can leave room for this possibility:
God can still make a way where, from where you are standing, there appears to be no way.
As Luke reminds us:
“For with God nothing shall be impossible.”
Related Topics
Adversity & Resilience
Faith • Hope • Perseverance • Trusting God • Discouragement
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