February 6 - Limitations

Shall we consider some of the Father’s limitations this morning?



Though we seldom think of it, He has a few.



Consider . . . the Father cannot leave His throne. He cannot come to us in person. He sent His Son, and we rejoice that Jesus said, “If you see me, you have seen the Father,” but the Father abides upon the throne of His glory and grace. We, as Jesus did, must go to Him.



He cannot make us present ourselves before Him. Oh, certainly He could, but He can’t, for love constrains Him, and God is love. He doesn’t bind us upon the altar of His desire for our fellowship. Ironically, life in a fallen world and the scourge of our spiritual enemies will drive us to that altar, but what will keep us coming back again and again, day after day, when the wounds are healed and the scourge is forestalled by His mercy and love? It won’t be God’s demand.



He cannot commune with our spirits but by prayer in the Spirit. Certainly, He can speak with us and to us, but how shall He converse with our born-again spirits, indwelt by the Holy Spirit, if we will not pray in the Spirit as well as with the understanding? How the Holy Spirit of God must long to speak and to express Himself within us, to be able to converse with the Father!



The Father has self-imposed limitations, and these, rightly understood, ought to make us flee to the Presence of His glory, to gaze into the mystery of such love as that which He has for us, love not forced upon us, even at this very moment.