Quiet Time Part II

After my pathetic attempt to listen to God’s promise for me (Quiet Time Part I) the Lord was faithful even in my weakness. He answered my prayer. This was His promise to me as I recorded it in my Bible study notes for that day:

“Give Me the bare minimum of what I want and I will give you the bare minimum of what you want.”

This was not a threat. This was not a punishing, menacing voice of domination. And it sure didn’t sound like a promise in the way I was expecting. God was simply stating a fact about my submission to Him.

God revealed to me that I was withholding all of myself from His care. It was mostly a mental block on my part. I was not affording Him the trust that He had earned to tend to all my needs and desires. In keeping myself from Him and giving Him my bare minimum I was robbing myself of the completeness of what He wanted to give me. I did not trust Him to take care of me so I took matters into my own hands which are obviously not as capable as those of my Good Shepherd. I was receiving God’s bare minimum not because He withheld his best from me but because I did not live and breathe in the knowledge of His fullness and love.

At this point, my husband prompted me to test my word from the Lord against scripture. He is very wise to test things against God’s word. He brought to my attention Ephesians 3:20-21, “Now to Him who is able to do exceedingly abundantly above all that we ask or think, according to the power that works in us, to Him be glory in the church by Christ Jesus to all generations, forever and ever. Amen.”

Michael further clarified his questions:

“To me (and I could be wrong on this) God will and can do what he wants in my life whether I am a participant or not. Yes, if I give myself fully to Him, I will receive fully from Him, but it almost goes towards a "works" practice, rather than grace….I absolutely get what you are saying with this, ‘We limit the work that God is able to do in our lives.’ In a sense, that's what I got out of it. I think that is true, but I want to lock it in to scripture because of the simple fact that it appears to limit God, who is limitless.”

*I thank God for my husband who keeps me seeking the Lord and His truth.

I agree that God can do what He wants with my life whether I participate or not. He is able to do exceedingly abundantly above all that I have ever planned for myself. Let us always remember that God does what pleases Himself. He is sovereign and holy. He chooses who He uses and how.

In Part III, I will lay out for you the beauty of what God showed Michael and me as we tried to understand how I could be experiencing the bare minimum of a limitless God. I was brought to tears of joy by the loving and tender kindness of our Lord who does not tire in revealing Himself to us.