Unlimited
What would you do with unlimited resources?
Would you buy a yacht, plane, or skyscraper? Help eliminate world hunger? Travel the world? Fund cancer research? Ensure that every orphan has a safe place to live? Would you mostly think about yourself, or would think about others?
It’s hard to imagine having no limits. We’re in constant need of food, water, air, and sleep. But unlimited is who God is.
Writing to the first-century church in Ephesus, the apostle Paul said this:
“I pray that from his glorious, unlimited resources he will empower you with inner strength through his Spirit.”
Ephesians 3:16 NLT
Will you pause for a moment and consider what it means to truly be unlimited? To have every resource imaginable at your fingertips? To never need food. To never get tired. To never get distracted. To never have a single need.
Nothing is too hard for God, and He wants to empower His people.
If you keep reading through the end of the chapter, Paul wants the Ephesians to be empowered with God’s Spirit—by means of His unlimited resources—so that their roots will grow deep, His Spirit will keep them strong, and they’ll be able to experience the depth and fullness of God’s love.
It’s an ongoing mystery why He chooses to use His imperfect people to accomplish His purposes. But that’s exactly what He wants and that’s exactly what He’ll do.
So, when you feel tired or overwhelmed, discouraged, or completely shattered, remember: God’s resources are unlimited. The possibilities are endless. And He specializes in making all things new.
His Pain, Our Gain
Isaiah 53 is a stunning chapter in the Bible—in what is now commonly referred to as the “Old Testament.”
Approximately 700 years before Jesus walked the earth, Isaiah prophesied about a suffering servant who would also, somehow and in some way, be exalted. A coming Savior, a future Redeemer, the long-awaited Messiah—whose death would ultimately bring life.
A portion of Isaiah 53 says this:
“But he was pierced for our transgressions, he was crushed for our iniquities; the punishment that brought us peace was on him, and by his wounds we are healed.”
Isaiah 53:5 NIV
So, who was this man who would be pierced, crushed, and wounded because of someone else’s sins? Whose undeserved punishment would be the catalyst for healing? Whose life would be given as an offering—so that others might live?
Jesus Christ not only fits the description of the suffering servant who paid the ultimate price to buy His people back, redeem them, and set them free—He ...
“Go to now, ye rich men, weep and howl for your miseries that shall come upon you. Your riches are corrupted, and your garments are motheaten. Your gold and silver is cankered; and the rust of them shall be a witness against you, and shall eat your flesh as it were fire. Ye have heaped treasure together for the last days. Behold, the hire of the labourers who have reaped down your fields, which is of you kept back by fraud, crieth: and the cries of them which have reaped are entered into the ears of the Lord of sabaoth. Ye have lived in pleasure on the earth, and been wanton; ye have nourished your hearts, as in a day of slaughter. Ye have condemned and killed the just; and he doth not resist you. Be patient therefore, brethren, unto the coming of the Lord. Behold, the husbandman waiteth for the precious fruit of the earth, and hath long patience for it, until he receive the early and latter rain. Be ye also patient; stablish your hearts: for the coming of the Lord draweth nigh. Grudge...