Don't think outside of God's box

If God set the boundaries you're trying to defy, going beyond them will always end in heartache.

The old system under the law of Moses was only a shadow, a dim preview of the good things to come, not the good things themselves. The sacrifices under that system were repeated again and again, year after year, but they were never able to provide perfect cleansing for those who came to worship. (Hebrews 10:1)

How weird would you say your brain is? Are you an abnormal kind of thinker (I am, my hand’s up), or do you think in the more commonly found patterns of life?

I’m not sure what it is about human nature that makes us so determined to go our own way. It’s not that thinking for yourself is wrong. On the contrary, some of the most brilliant minds in history have been people who thought outside the box.

Thinking outside the box only becomes a problem when God is the one who MADE the box.

When you’re dealing with a “box” of man-made expectations, dude, set it on fire. But when it’s a box that God made? When the boundaries and walls He has set in place are what you’re trying to overcome? That’s a dangerous line to walk. Because if God sets the boundaries, going beyond them will always end in heartache.

Keeping the Sabbath as a day of rest falls is a “God box” idea. He made it, so thinking outside of its protective walls will only create more problems.

Similarly, believing in Jesus as Messiah is also a “God box” idea. It’s something God determined and developed and offered to all of us as the only solution for our salvation.

The Sabbath is a picture of God’s promise of salvation through Jesus Christ. It presents Jesus as the only way to be saved. Not just a way. Not a potential “some” way. The ONLY way.

So don’t buy in to the cultural lie that many roads lead to salvation or that it’s your sincerity that matters. God held His people to ONE Law, His Word. And His Word points to one Savior, the only One. Anything else is thinking outside of God’s box, which never actually works.

Questions for Reflection

• Why do our sin natures convince us that we can change God’s Word to suit our preferences?

• How are some ways you’ve made excuses for your choices that went against God’s expectations?

• Why do we fear that God’s “box” will eliminate our freedom?

Weekly Memory Verse