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Have you ever been guilty of putting God in a box?

Before you rise up in ire at me, let me explain.

All my life – and I mean all my life – I’ve tended to go to extremes when thinking about God and relating to Him.

For me, He can be a God of extremes. He’s either the God of all comfort, or the God of white-hot rage. Same coin, two sides, I’d reason.

That is putting God in a box. It’s a subtle form of idolatry – it’s like I’m forcing Him (at least in my head) to be something He may or may not be.

In that context, there may have been times when I presumed to tell God how He ought to handle me. If I was experiencing joy and grace, I’d say, “Oh, God, I don’t deserve this. I haven’t earned this. How can you be so gracious to such a worm as I?”

Conversely, I might say in times of heartache and sorrow, “God, you need to lay off me. In football, I’d call this ‘piling on.’ You need to cut me some slack.”

Neither one of these sentiments is exactly wrong. But it does smack of trying to put God in a box. If He’s in a box, then it’s easy enough to examine Him. He’s limited, right?

There is a subtle danger in trying to “figure out” God. Certainly He revealed Himself in Jesus, and that should be sufficient. Still, we sometimes want answers, and we want them on our terms, in a way that suits us.

As always, I’m not discrediting the primal cry prayer of “why?” I’m all about being honest and transparent with the Almighty (as if He didn’t know my heart already.) What I’m getting at is just for us to understand and accept that about the time you think you have it all figured out, and have God in a box, He’s fixin’ to bust the box.

There are some pretty significant implications here for all of us. Those implications should give you lots of hope and encouragement.

We tend to put God in one of two boxes, which I’ve already hinted at. He is either all-loving, approving of whatever we do (mutant grace – more on that in a minute); or He’s all-judging, condemning us for the way we live our lives.

So …

• He is all-loving, and He delights in forgiveness. That’s grace. But mutant grace is when we take His nature for granted. Yes, if you’re a believer, you are forgiven. Forgiven of all your sins – past, present, future. But we are not to exploit that. That particular box will be blown to smithereens, because even though you’re forgiven, He won’t tolerate known, willful sin.
• God has subtle ways to correct us and bring us back into a right relationship with Him. Okay … sometimes He isn’t so subtle. Grace is free, but it’s not cheap. Point is, He’s going to do whatever He needs to in order to conform you to the image of Jesus. Hold on tight.
• Conversely, if you check out the other box, it’s not airtight either. He is a God of rage – He hates sin in all its manifestations. He won’t tolerate it. But – and this is a big but – He is so, so patient. He gives us plenty of plenty of chances to live a life that honors Him. He’s not some cosmic potentate demanding His pound of flesh.

What are the implications of this for you personally? What happens when you insist in trying to put God in a box?

• Think about the times when you expected God to act a certain way and He didn’t. How did that make you feel?
• His ways are not your ways. Neither are His thoughts your thoughts.
• He always, always, always has His best interests in mind, not yours. He doesn’t exist to please you.
• HOWEVER – He loves you unspeakably lots, and all that He does in and through and with you is in the context of that love.
• I promise – God is a God of surprises. He will always act according to His nature, and He will always bring glory to Himself. The surprise comes when we think we have it all figured out, and He shows us a part of His nature we weren’t expecting. That, actually, is pretty cool.

So forget trying to put God in a box. It won’t work.

God does not lower His standards to accommodate us, but instead He extends to us the nail-scarred hand of forgiveness to raise us up to His level of righteousness.

O be joyful.