Exceed your vision

A few months ago we started a monthly "Bible Book Club."  It's very similar to a normal book club, although the books we read are books from the Bible.  Each month we read a book of the Bible and then meet together to share what we have learned, how God may have spoken to us through our reading, and what practical lessons we can take from what we have read.

At our most recent gathering, we were looking at the letter of Paul to the Philippians.  It is a remarkably uplifting letter, considering the fact that when Paul wrote it he was in prison!  One might have expected that, given Paul's circumstances, he might have been very downbeat.  Not a bit of it!  The letter is full of joy.  In one passage he writes about his journey of faith as he has sought to fulfil the calling which God had placed on his life.  He states, 'One thing I do: forgetting what is behind and straining towards what is ahead, I press on towards the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenwards in Christ Jesus' (Philippians 3.4).  He has a clear vision of God's calling, and is determined to press on towards the goal.

Quite a number of churches these days use modern projection systems to project words and images.  I was recently in one of my churches which has that facility and happened to notice that when the system was first turned on, a message was shown briefly on the screen, something like this:

Clearly the manufacturers of the equipment (Epson) want to highlight the value of their technology.  As I read those words, "Exceed your vision", it seemed to me a very powerful challenge to the spiritual life (and, indeed, to life in general).

Perhaps not everyone has a clear vision of the future to which they are aiming, or an understanding of the goals which lie before them.  We may not have such a strong sense of a specific calling which Paul obviously had.  But even if we do have a vision of the future, is the vision adequate?  Sometimes, for example, our hopes and dreams are restricted by our too-small understanding of what God can do, or what we can do in his strength.  I was asked recently which was my favourite Bible verse. I could choose so many!  One of my favourites has to be a verse from another of Paul's letters, where Paul encourages his readers with the wonderful reality that God 'is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to his power that is at work within us' (Ephesians 3.20).

However big our vision, however great our faith in what God can do, he can do far more than even our greatest imaginings!  Let's dream big dreams, let's allow large visions to grow in our hearts, but let's never forget that God can greatly exceed our vision!