GOD'S DESIRE FOR SELF EXTENSION

"Then God said, "Let Us make man in Our image, according to Our likeness; let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, over the birds of the air, and over the cattle, over all the earth and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth." (Genesis 1:26, NKJV)

Devotion 1 of 10

INTRODUCTION

Some people find it difficult to think of God as having desires. It is true, we must be careful about HOW we think about God. We do not want to develop ideas about God that make Him like us. God's desires are right, and they are noble, or admirable and respectable. They are never wrong or in considerate. That is because God is basically good, and therefore His desires are basically, or fundamentally, good. By "basically good," I mean the main thing about God's desires is their goodness. They are for the good of others, and produce goodness in others. Just like an ocean is made up mainly of water, so God is made up mainly of goodness.

This series speaks of God's desire for "Self-extension." What does that mean? It might be well to say a word about what it does NOT mean. If I extend my house, I make it larger--but that is not what happens to God when He extends Himself. He is not becoming a bigger God, or a better God, or a more effective God. If God could become bigger, or better, or more effective, He would not be God. God does not grow and improve like we do. He is perfect, and He never "changes" by growing or improving, or becoming better. This is what God means when He says, "I the LORD do not change . . . " (Mal 3:6).

AN ILLUSTRATION

Although this is a very crude illustration, God extending Himself is something like distributing a precious substance. Imagine that you had a large container of precious oil. It was all in one place, and only one person had access to it. What is more, the more this oil was used, the more precious it became. Desiring to share this commodity, you poured it into a number of smaller containers and distributed it to your favorite people. Imagine, too, that after you did this, you still had the same amount of precious oil in the large container. You would have EXTENDED the oil.

We have an example of something like this in God's Word. During the time of Elisha the prophet, one of the "sons of the prophets" died. His widow was at once hounded by a person to whom the family was indebted. The widow had no resources, and was unable to pay the debt. She asked the prophet Elisha what to do. He asked what she had in the house, and she told him she had a container of oil. He told her to quickly borrow as many empty containers as she could from her neighbors. She filled the house with the borrowed empty containers. They were various shapes and sizes. The prophet told her to start pouring the oil she had into those containers. As she poured, the oil in her container stayed at the same level, even though she was filling container after container. When all of the containers were filled, she could pour no pour from the original container. She still had the oil she started with--all of it. Yet, she had filled a great number of containers with the very same oil. SHE HAD EXTENDED THE OIL. This account is found in 2 Kings 4:1-7.

When I say God desires to extend Himself, this is what I mean. God wants to pour Himself, so to speak, into other personalities. He not only wants to work in them, He wants them to work WITH Him. In sharing Himself, He loses nothing. He becomes no less God than He was before. Frankly, that is a marvelous achievement! This is what the Bible is referring to when it says, "Therefore, my beloved, as you have always obeyed, not as in my presence only, but now much more in my absence, work out your own salvation with fear and trembling; for it is God who works in you both to will and to do for His good pleasure" (Philippians 2:12-13).

PRAYER POINT: Father, I have read in Your Word about being "filled with al the fulness of God." That is what I desire. I ask in Jesus' name that You grant me this blessing.

-- TOMORROW: "LET US MAKE MAN" --