What Does a Banana Taste Like?

Sovereign. That's one of those words that I've always had trouble processing. When I realized that was my meditation for today, I was like, "Oh great! This should be interesting." You know how you have words that you feel like you understand in your mind, but it's hard to describe? Yep, that is how I am with the word "sovereign." It's like someone who asks "What does a banana taste like?" (A banana!) You can say it tastes sweet, but nothing else tastes like a banana so you have nothing to compare it to.

Much like that banana, there is nothing to which I can compare the sovereignty of God. That is what trips me up. Oftentimes, I explain things by making comparisons. My brain likes to process new information by connecting it with something I'm already familiar with so when I have to think of God's sovereignty, my brain grows weary of trying to compare it to the familiar.

Anything that we can come up with can not compare to the sovereignty of God. It's really a combination of several of His attributes that I've already blogged about all rolled up into one. Consider this:

Jehovah  +  Omniscient  +  Omnipresent  +  Omnipotent  +  Infinite = Sovereignty of God  

Translate that equation into a sentence and you've got:

I AM ultimate knowledge, existing everywhere at once, and abundantly powerful without beginning, end, or limits. Whoa! That really puts it in perspective.

Scripture says:

1 Chronicles 29:11-13

Yours, O LORD, is the greatness, the power, the glory, the victory, and the majesty. Everything in the heavens and on earth is yours, O LORD, and this is your kingdom. We adore you as the one who is over all things. 12 Riches and honor come from you alone, for you rule over everything. Power and might are in your hand, and it is at your discretion that people are made great and given strength. 13 "O our God, we thank you and praise your glorious name!  

As I have embarked on this journey, I have processed God piece by piece. I have taken it one attribute at a time or one name at a time to learn more about His character. Each day, I have been blown away by who God is and who He will always be. It isn't that he "tries" to be these things. He just IS.

Because God is sovereign, we have access to knowledge and limitless power as He surrounds us in every part of creation and allows His spirit to live in us. The Spirit of the sovereign God, the creator of all things, chooses to live in us to guide us, strengthen us, and help us on our journey.

Whoa!

Read that last sentence again. Doesn't that blow your mind?!

I was right in the beginning when I said that I have nothing to compare it to. Nothing compares to that!

Gold in a Sea of Gravel

"I've got this! It's all under control. I don't need anyone's help. I can take care of myself. If I want it done right, I better do it myself." Ever heard anyone say anything like these phrases? Have you ever said them yourself? I know I have. I've tried to be Ms. Independent and Ms. Tough Girl, but it ws all in an effort to protect myself or prove that what I had to say was valid. It really just boils down to pride.

We all want to be validated and feel self-worth. Many of us think that we are the ONLY ones with a valid opinion and that it's our job to ensure that everyone else knows it. (You know you just thought of someone in your head...don't even try to deny it. LOL) When left in that state of mind, it is easy to believe we are self-sufficient as if somehow God struck pure gold when He created us and filled the rest of humanity with gravel.

Pride. I'll say it again...PRIDE.

Here is the truth about self-sufficiency: God is the only one who is truly self-sufficient. It's one of His attributes. Take a look:

Acts 17:24-28 (NLT)

24 "He is the God who made the world and everything in it. Since he is Lord of heaven and earth, he doesn't live in man-made temples, 25 and human hands can't serve his needs -- for he has no needs. He himself gives life and breath to everything, and he satisfies every need there is. 26 From one man he created all the nations throughout the whole earth. He decided beforehand which should rise and fall, and he determined their boundaries. 27 "His purpose in all of this was that the nations should seek after God and perhaps feel their way toward him and find him -- though he is not far from any one of us. 28 For in him we live and move and exist. As one of your own poets says, 'We are his offspring.'  

He clearly doesn't need our help with anything and we clearly need His help for everything. He has no need for assistance from us. He is the Creator and the One who filled an entire planet full of people by starting with only one man and one woman. It's nothing we could have done on our own without God's perfect design.

Furthermore, it is in Him that we live, move and even exist. We can't even breathe without God allowing it so how in the world do we think we can handle our problems, stress, addictions and sin without His help at every moment? How could we possibly overcome any of it without His help? We can't.

What does that mean for us? It means that we need to recogize the self-sufficiency of God, acknowledge our inability to be self-sufficient (less we become a victim of pride), and surrender every moment  to Him for His glory. You know that moment when you're about to put someone in their place? Yep, surrender that moment to Him and see how that changes the situation. That moment when you want to retaliate for someone being a complete jerk to you? Yep, surrender that moment, too. God is sufficient. He is enough. In fact, He is more than enough and more than we can handle in this lifetime. 

Oh, and one more thing to really bake your noodle: He is not far from any one of us (read verse 27 again). Don't think He's too far away to meet your needs. He is everywhere you go waiting for you to rely entirely upon Him alone. Let's not keep Him waiting.  

The sky really IS the limit.

Typically, when someone says, "The sky is the limit," they mean that the possibilities are endless. You'll often hear phrases like this from opportunists, motivational speakers, hopeless optimists, used car salesmen, and that good buddy who keeps trying to get you to join his downline in his latest network marketing venture.

As you may have expected, I have a different take on the phrase. Shocking....I know.

Grammatically speaking, it is really saying, "You can go as far as the sky, but that's it. You can't go further. You are limited in how far you can go." Sorry if I ruined that phrase for you forever, but welcome to my brain. :o)

Today's medidation time (which seems to be growing beyond my commute) was spent on an attribute of God. "Attribute" (at-tri-byoot...not uh-trib-yoot....two very different things) is a term referring to a quality of God's character. Today's attribute: God is infinite.

Romans 11:33 (NLT)

33 Oh, what a wonderful God we have! How great are his riches and wisdom and knowledge! How impossible it is for us to understand his decisions and his methods!  

We live in a world full of people who won't believe in anything they can't see. They have to have quantifiable, visible, and tangible proof. They call it scientific. They call it wisdom.

God can't be measured. You can't put Him on a scale to see how much He weights and no tape measure in existence could measure His height. He is beyond our finite minds, scoffs at the tiny boxes in which we try to squeeze Him, and can not be limited. With a word, He spoke the world into existence. He breathed life into a man-shaped lump of dirt and gave him life...eyes blinking, heart beating....the whole nine yards! 

There is not a person on the planet who can do that, I don't care how smart and creative they think they are. 

God can not be stopped by time, space, demensions, powers, or authorities. His wisdom is so far beyond ours that we can't even BEGIN to comprehend it. I am one who loves to know the method to the maddness. Unfortunately, there is only so much of God I can understand because my brain is not big enough to hold it all. The combination of all the brains on the planet (including the ones who actually use more than 10%) working together would not be enough to fathom Gods wisdom and knowledge. 

I guess I should remember that the next time I don't understand why something is going awry and I feel the need to throw up my fist at God. Who am I to think I can tell God how to do His job? I know I get annoyed when people who know nothing about what I do try to tell me how I could do it better. So why should I do that to God? {spoiler alert: I shouldn't.} Yeah, that would be what one of my friends calls and "Amen/Ouch."   

I thought about all of this as I looked up at the beautiful blue sky full of puffy, white clouds. The sky is enormous. It seems to go on forever in all directions and it does...to a point. The oxygen in our atmosphere, the gravitational pull that keeps our feet on the ground, and the winds pushing those clouds around exist even though we can't see them. However, if you keep going higher and higher into the sky, you will discover that even gravity and oxygen are limited. Ask any astronaut and they'll tell you. These things do not exist in space, but God remains the same. He is as real in space as He is in the earth's atmosphere.

The next time you look at the sky, look all around as far as you can see and remember that God is beyond limit and measurement. Your circumstances may not make sense, but get to know the One who knows what the real deal is. Don't think that because God is infinite that He is too big to care for you, though. He just cares for you more than you can imagine, that's all.