God often asks questions in scripture. He does not ask these questions to gain information; He asks these questions for our benefit and to open our eyes to the possibilities. God is always in a teaching mode in His relationship with us. It is a tragedy when we go through the trials of life but do not learn anything from it. The Psalmist paints a stark picture of God’s relationship with Israel when he says they limited God. This word is only used three times in the bible. In this context, it means to draw a line in our lives that allows God to be god only up to that point. God spoke the universe into being, parted the Red Sea, and provided mana in the wilderness. But somehow, we do not believe He can deal with any situation that comes our way. We draw a circle around Him that limits his abilities and powers from doing what He wants to do. In our text, Jesus asks how much food they had to feed the multitude. They report that they ONLY had five loves and two SMALL fish. They add to the report that “it is not enough.” They were placing limits on Him. God’s ability is not limited by our inability to see the full potential of His power if we would only allow him access to what we have. How do we limit God? We do that when we seek a temporary relief rather than a deliverance from our problem. God wants to do more than just pick us up on Sunday; He wants to carry us through all week. We limit God when we judge the present by the past. The man at the pool of Bethesda offered excuses based on what happened in the past. How many of us limit our lives because we cannot believe that things can be different from the past? We limit Him when we see the problem, but not the possibilities. His presence challenges everything. We limit God when we fail to respond to His call. God is never going to ask us to do something that we are incapable of doing. We limit God when we give him our problem but do not take our hands off it and allow Him to have it. As long as we continue to hold onto our trials, God cannot handle them.