breaking down the box.

recognizing mortality. [4]


We have discussed the two main reasons for placing God in a box.

The need for control.

Setting self-glorifying expectations.

But how does a god in a box affect you?

What is so wrong with taking Him out when you want Him?

Isn’t it easier that way?


Why is it that we always think and live like God wants to make our lives easy?

He isn’t a genie in a bottle, and He isn’t a god in a box.

Was the life of David easy? No, and he was a man after God’s own heart.

Was the life of Jesus easy? No, and He was God’s own Son!

Was the life of Paul easy? No, and he was a man strong in relaying God’s Word.

Christians are not called to an “easy” life.

I think its best put in a song by Ginny Owens.

“It may not be the way I would have chosen, when you lead me through a world that's not my own. But You never said it would be easy; You only said I'll never go alone.” –Ginny Owens, If You Want Me To

There is truth to this statement.

“You only said I’ll never go alone.”

Hebrews 13:5 . . . God has said, “Never will I leave you; never will I forsake you.”

We will never be alone.

He is always by our side. If we free Him from the box.

Though we’re not alone, and we have the God who makes all things possible by our side, does that make our lives easy? I doubt any of us would raise our hand to that.

If anything, our lives are only harder.


Most times when things get hard, we then turn to Jesus. We rub the magic lamp and hope that our genie in a bottle or god in a box will pop out and make all our problems, struggles and failures disappear.

It doesn’t happen that way.

Then we blame God, because He hasn’t been the “god” we need, and we put the lamp away, we shove Him back into a box.

Why do we think that God has failed us if we struggle?

Why do we believe we’re alone if we don’t hear answers or see change?

Sometimes we think we’re listening when we’re not. Sometimes we put our ear right up to that blasted box, yet we still don’t hear a sound.

Why? God isn’t in there.

That thing we have created is in there.

God has been placed where He doesn’t belong.
We’re not going to get anywhere by relying on something we ourselves have created.


Recognizing my mortality is uncomfortable at times. Recognizing that I still think that I deserve an easier life with fewer problems, simply because Jesus is on my side. Recognizing that I still want to be in control. Recognizing that my self-glorifying expectations remain.
Painful realization. That’s not fun. It’s humbling. It hurts. Honestly, it makes me feel terrible about myself.

That’s when I go to my box. I pull that “thing” out. I confess where I have been. But because of my limited ability to think, because of my mind that can only think with boundaries, the truth is that thing will do me no good.


What is the point of recognizing why I place God in a box?

I have a need for control. I have countless self-glorifying expectations. Why is understanding that so important?

It shows me the only truth that gives me a hope of releasing God from the box.
I am not God.

And that thing inside the box, it is not God either.

He cannot be created. There is no other “version” of Him.

I will fail. I am man. I am fallen.

That is a constant reality check.

I would like to say that we can remove God from the box we have created, and see Him for who He truly is, but the truth is: it will always be a struggle.

We will always fall back into needing control.

We will always start expecting things wrongly of others, ourselves, and God.

We will always fail and life will not ever be easy.

So where is the hope? What is truth?

We are not alone. The Lord will not leave or forsake us. Others are in this constant struggle as well.

As we face temptation to fall, we have to remember that Christ faced the same temptation as well.

Then when we fall, and realize we are not God, we are not Christ; we can remember who He is. Who we are not, but who He is.

That’s what is beautiful about falling. God is glorified. When we are humbled, He finds glory.

That breaks down a wall. That opens up the box. The box is still there, but it’s beginning to be broken down.

Getting to know who God is begins to free Him. It begins to free us. Free us from failure, and free us from selfishness. Life slowly changes and is no longer about us, but about glorifying Him.

Is that not our purpose?

Is our God not one of extreme praise-worthiness?

Should we not live life on our knees before Him?

Sure they get tired, and sometimes we get up, but can we begin to give God glory, even in our walking?

How do we do that? We simply recognize that we have failed, are failing, and will continue to fail. We need God.

That lets God be God.

That breaks down the box.


That brings me back to the original question, How does God in a box affect you?

Ultimately, if the box isn’t being broken down, if you aren’t releasing control, and abandoning expectations, if you are not recognizing your own discredit, you’re living luke-warm. If you’re not jumping into the struggle, you’re remaining stagnant. If you’re not reaching for change, you will never begin maturation. You will never live a life which brings God glory.

God calls us to growth.


Paul is one of my favorite examples of growth and change. Going from Saul, an atheist, to a change of names, Paul, the Lord’s servant.

In Philippians Paul tells of his strategy for growth.

Philippians 3:12-13 . . . Not that I have already obtained all this, or have already been made perfect, but I press on to take hold of that for which Christ Jesus took hold of me. Brothers, I do not consider myself yet to have taken hold of it. But one thing I do: Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead.

Paul decides to recognize his mortality, “Not that I have already been made perfect,” and strain toward what is ahead.

Growth in Christ is part of getting to know Him. When you grow, you begin to looking like Him.

Beginning to live like Christ is not becoming religious. Or trying to look perfect.

Living like Christ is something that happens only when the Lord performs a work inside of you.

But we must be willing to [as we’ve thought about] surrender control.

Romans 12:1-2 . . . So here's what I want you to do, God helping you: Take your everyday, ordinary life—your sleeping, eating, going-to-work, and walking-around life—and place it before God as an offering. Embracing what God does for you is the best thing you can do for him. Don't become so well-adjusted to your culture that you fit into it without even thinking. Instead, fix your attention on God. You'll be changed from the inside out. Readily recognize what he wants from you, and quickly respond to it. Unlike the culture around you, always dragging you down to its level of immaturity, God brings the best out of you, develops well-formed maturity in you.

Being willing is fixing your attention on Him. Obeying is responding quickly to what the Spirit calls you to. Knowing the Spirit and your calling comes from the change which God performs when you live like Jesus.

Living like Jesus is what happens when you let go, when you surrender. You are no longer yourself, but Christ is living through you.

2 Corinthians 5:17 . . . If anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation, the old has gone, and the new has come.

Life was not easy for Christ, but He recognized that it shouldn’t be.

Romans 15:3 . . . [Jesus] didn't make it easy for himself by avoiding people's troubles, but waded right in and helped out. "I took on the troubles of the troubled," is the way Scripture puts it. Even if it was written in Scripture long ago, you can be sure it's written for us. God wants the combination of his steady, constant calling and warm, personal counsel in Scripture to come to characterize us, keeping us alert for whatever he will do next. May our dependably steady and warmly personal God develop maturity in you so that you get along with each other as well as Jesus gets along with us all. Then we'll be a choir—not our voices only, but our very lives singing in harmony in a stunning anthem to the God and Father of our Master Jesus!


My encouragement to you for growing in knowledge of Him, and growing in Him, is to let the Scripture come to “characterize” you. Let Him sing a stunning anthem through you.

In order for that to happen, you must choose to be in His Word. You must choose to study and memorize.

Let the Lord complete you.

When we let God work in us, move us, and mature us, again, it makes us recognize our mortality.

We are not God.

God is God.

The box is breaking.