We’ve all heard sayings like, “Reach for the moon; even if you miss you’ll land among the stars.” It sounds good. It sounds inspiring. But what does it really mean? How does it actually apply?
I am continually amazed at how much I limit myself. I should preface that by saying I have achieved quite a bit in life. Yet I find my natural mindset is to shoot for what I can visualize, what Ican see myself doing. Even if what I envision is big, I usually have no idea how I’m going to get there, how I should go about making my vision a reality. So I do nothing. I don’t even really try! I simply stop and go back to what I can picture and do what I know how to do.
If I’m bound by what I can envision, I am seriously limited! I can only grow to what I can see. This is where faith comes in. I serve a universally large God, a god who created things so big we still are struggling to figure it all out on both a macro and micro level! Isaiah put it this way, “Who has measured the waters in the hollow of his hand, or with the breadth of his hand marked off the heavens? Who has held the dust of the earth in a basket, or weighed the mountains on the scales and the hills in a balance? To whom, then, will you compare God?” (40:12,18a)
I serve a limitless God, one who is bound by nothing. When I lean on myself, I’m limited by my own understanding; when I lean on God, I am limited by nothing. Jesus told his disciples, “If you have faith and do not doubt … you can say to this mountain, ‘Go, throw yourself into the sea,’ and it will be done. If you believe, you will receive whatever you ask for in prayer.” (Mt. 21:21-22)
Now my faith may never grow to that level, but if I never reach for it I’ll never know. And if by reaching for such a great faith in what God can do I fall short, I will still grow and achieve far more with God than if I’d never tried. So I’m challenged to think so much bigger than I do on my own—universally big! Exponentially large! Because the God I serve is all of those things.
For Further Thought: “Do you not know? Have you not heard? The Lord is the everlasting God, the Creator of the ends of the earth. He will not grow tired or weary, and his understanding no one can fathom. He gives strength to the weary and increases the power of the weak. Even youths grow tired and weary, and young men stumble and fall; but those who hope in the Lord will renew their strength. They will soar on wings like eagles; they will run and not grow weary, they will walk and not be faint” (Isaiah 40:27-31).