Limitless

There’s no doubt that moms wear a lot of hats—nurse, chauffeur, short-order cook, teacher, lifeguard, laundress, and more. But moms also have limitations. Kids can be trying at times, pushing boundaries, and we walk a tightrope between protecting them versus mollycoddling or letting them explore versus running wild. We can’t be all things to our children. Numerous times, I cried out to God from my bathroom floor, “Lord, I’ve messed them up. I need You to cover my mistakes.”

Thankfully, God can. While I am limited, He is limitless.

In Exodus, when Abraham asked God, Who should I say sent me? God responds, “I AM WHO I AM,” and tell the Israelites, “I AM has sent me to you.” (Exodus 3:14.) God doesn’t limit Himself to the God who saves or the God who protects. He is the great omnipresent and omnipotent I AM, which allows Him to be all things to all people.

Back in ancient Egypt, Greece, and Rome, the (small g) gods had specific dominions over aspects of life, for example, the god of fertility, the god of the harvest, and the god of thunder. They were finite and limited.

But not our God. He didn’t limit Himself. I AM means self-sufficient, self-sustaining, the Alpha and Omega, the One who was, who is, and who always will be. His existence isn’t dependent on rituals or offerings. We don’t have to perform sacrifices to gain His attention and favor. He’s not dependent upon anyone, yet the I AM makes Himself accessible to everyone. All we have to do is talk to Him. (Psalm 91:15, Jeremiah 33:3, Matthew 7:7-8)  

God is timeless and ageless—the beginning and the end. He has no birth and no death, but He sent His Son to earth to walk among us. He understands being born into a cold and dark world and saved us from our sins by taking them upon Himself and nailing them to the cross in a gruesome death.

Other religions claim Jesus wasn’t God, but I’m going to listen to the words of the man who rose from the dead. In John 8:58, Jesus claimed before the religious leaders that He is God incarnate, “Before Abraham was, I AM.” The religious leaders understood that Jesus was claiming to be God and to have been with God from the beginning. They considered Jesus’s words blasphemous and picked up stones to kill him according to the Mosaic Law (Leviticus 24:11-14), but Jesus slipped away.

Jesus makes seven I AM declarations about Himself:
I AM the bread of life (John 6:35)
I AM the light of the world (John 8:12)
I AM the gate for the sheep (John 10:7)
I AM the good shepherd (John 10:11, 14)
I AM the resurrection and the life (John 11:25)
I AM the way, the truth, and the life (John 14:6)
I AM the true vine (John 15:1)

The Great I AM is truth and life when lies and death surround us. He is our creator and restorer when we’re feeling depleted. He is our deliverer when we’re lost and need a way home. He’s our sustainer when life feels overwhelming. He’s our comforter when we suffer sorrows. He’s our master because we need direction. He’s our savior because we need rescuing. He’s our provider, protector, healer, and so much more.

Our limited, finite brains try to put God in a box. We try to figure Him out, place Him in our own context, but God is greater than our thinking, greater than our concepts and theories. Don’t we want a God who is bigger than our time, world, and its problems? Instead of trying to squish God into our framework, why not embrace God, whose ways are higher than our ways?

There is nothing mightier than the Great I AM.