Compassing Light

1. He's God and we're not.
   1. Job 23:13

With Him are wisdom and might; To Him belong counsel and understanding.

2. Psalm 115:3

But our God is in the heavens; He does whatever He pleases.

2. God doesn't need us, but we desperately need Him.
   1. John 15:5

I am the vine, you are the branches; he who abides in Me and I in him, he bears much fruit, for apart from Me you can do nothing.

2. II Corinthians 3:4-5

Such confidence we have through Christ toward God.

Not that we are adequate in ourselves to consider anything as coming from ourselves, but our adequacy is from God,

3. What God demands, God supplies.
   1. Genesis 22 (Abraham sacrificing Isaac)

He said, "Take now your son, your only son, whom you love, Isaac, and go to the land of Moriah, and offer him there as a burnt offering on one of the mountains of which I will tell you."

So Abraham rose early in the morning and saddled his donkey, and took two of his young men with him and Isaac his son; and he split wood for the burnt offering, and arose and went to the place of which God had told him.

On the third day Abraham raised his eyes and saw the place from a distance.

Abraham said to his young men, "Stay here with the donkey, and I and the lad will go over there; and we will worship and return to you."

Abraham took the wood of the burnt offering and (F)laid it on Isaac his son, and he took in his hand the fire and the knife. So the two of them walked on together.

Isaac spoke to Abraham his father and said, "My father!" And he said, "Here I am, my son." And he said, "Behold, the fire and the wood, but where is the lamb for the burnt offering?"

Abraham said, "God will provide for Himself the lamb for the burnt offering, my son." So the two of them walked on together.

 Then they came to the place of which God had told him; and Abraham built the altar there and arranged the wood, and bound his son Isaac and laid him on the altar, on top of the wood.

Abraham stretched out his hand and took the knife to slay his son.

But the angel of the LORD called to him from heaven and said, "Abraham, Abraham!" And he said, "Here I am."

He said, "Do not stretch out your hand against the lad, and do nothing to him; for now I know that you fear God, since you have not withheld your son, your only son, from Me."

Then Abraham raised his eyes and looked, and behold, behind him a ram caught in the thicket by his horns; and Abraham went and took the ram and offered him up for a burnt offering in the place of his son.

4. What you seek, you will find.
   1. Matthew 6:33

But seek first His kingdom and His righteousness, and all these things will be added to you.

5. Active faith releases God's power.
   1. Hebrews 11:6

And without faith it is impossible to please Him, for he who comes to God must believe that He is and that He is a rewarder of those who seek Him.

6. There is no growth without struggle.
   1. James 1:2-4

Consider it all joy, my brethren, when you encounter various trials,

knowing that the testing of your faith produces endurance.

And let endurance have its perfect result, so that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing.

7. What God starts, God finishes.
   1. Romans 8:31

What then shall we say to these things? If God is for us, who is against us?

From Ray Pritchard's book: He's God and We're Not (The Seven Laws of Spiritual Life)