Back in the early 50’s, J.B.Phillips published a book called Your God Is Too Small. I remember reading the book early on in my faith journey, but it strikes me that it is almost more profound today than it was then. After all, some of us have lost sight of who God is, and others have decided to just give up on the notion of God altogether.
Phillips casts God in a variety of roles in his book, imagining that our thoughts of God limit our perspective. He talks about the God who is a managing director, and the God who is a kindly old man, and the God in a box. Today we might have other versions of this. We might have a God that gives us all the answers on the Internet, or a God that just can’t handle the difficulties of the world today. After all, how big can God really be?
I would suggest that God is bigger than any thought, description, notion, or idea that we might have of Him. God is beyond our imagination, beyond our ability to comprehend, and bigger than our limited view of reality. So what do we do to give God more space in our minds and hearts? How do we grow up to a more adult version of God, the one who really is, and not just the one we want God to be.
Actually, Jesus gave us the answer. He said, “Ask, seek, and knock.” In other words, we have to open our minds to every possibility that God is actually bigger than we are, that He knows more than we do, and that He cares about who we are as human beings. Keep asking, keep seeking, keep knocking. Only then can God show you who He is. He’s not trying to make it difficult for you. He wants you to know Him and to discover how much He has to give you. He wants to help you step away from the confines of your own limited thinking, and reach out past the stars, past the negative thoughts, and into the amazing assurance of His existence.
When you seek God with all your heart, you will find Him. When you seek to have more room in your heart, you will be able to make more room for Him. God wants to be bigger in your life!