A continued theme for me for the past several months has been Expansion.
I find this rather amusing, that God would be speaking of expansion and increase to me. All I can see around me is that everything seems to be getting smaller, fewer, tighter. So…whatever you call it, it does not feel comfortable, expansive or increasing! My clothes don’t fit as I head into the 30th week of pregnancy (Okay, so maybe my waistline and weight are about the only things I’ve seen increasing!). Our budget is smaller and limited as I have left work to grow a baby! And as I look around – I know I am not the only one feeling the pressure. I see friends with businesses, families, relationships – all at some point or another feeling constrained, feeling as if the walls were closing in around them.
And yet God says – Bigger! More! Expand! Look at what I’m about to do! I LOVE that God speaks this into our seemingly small circumstances!
My favorite verse for the past year, from the Message translation reads:
Thank you! Everything in me says “Thank you!” Angels listen as I sing my thanks. I kneel in worship facing your holy temple and say it again: “Thank you!” Thank you for your love, thank you for your faithfulness; Most holy is your name, most holy is your Word. The moment I called out, you stepped in; you made my life large with strength. Psalm 138: 1-3
God is waiting for us to realize how good, loving and faithful he is and cry out “Thank you!” And the moment we cry out – he is there – ready to step in and make our lives large with strength.
Also notice the psalmist says Most holy is your name, most holy is your Word. God is good for his word! He says he is a provider, an increaser, faithful, caring, loving God willing to take care of our every need.
I am so glad that all my outward circumstances seem so small right now. It is causing me to actually allow God to step in and bring strength, bring expansion. I would otherwise just try to figure out how to get things done myself. But God wants to partner with us in life! Don’t leave him out!
While everything externally seems smaller – God is speaking expansion – and my heart and life have never felt larger! Wherever you are in life today – you have the opportunity to live an insignificant, self-seeking life, or an expansive, God-breathed, purposeful life!
Again from the Message translation, 2 Corinthians 6:4 reads: …people are watching us as we stay at our post, alertly, unswervingly… in hard times, tough times, bad times…
Paul continues to describe the bad times and they aren’t pretty! Yet he finishes with this in 2 Corinthians 6: 11-13:
Dear, dear Corinthians, I can’t tell you how much I long for you to enter this wide-open, spacious life. We didn’t fence you in. The smallness you feel comes from within you. Your lives aren’t small, but you’re living them in a small way. I’m speaking as plainly as I can and with great affection. Open up your lives. Live openly and expansively!
No matter what you see around you – you have the choice today to live openly and expansively! Nothing can fence in a child of God except our own fear, small thinking or doubt! Start with a thankful heart. Remind yourself that God is good, faithful, loving, willing and able! You are not on your own in this – he is right there ready to step in with strength. He already has the provision that you need for every area of life!
