PRE-CONFERENCE DEVOTIONAL | ON THE WAY
The Most Important Thing
Psalm 145:3 | Isaiah 40:25–28 | Ephesians 3:20
There is a question that quietly shapes everything about your life. It shapes how you think, how you pray, how you love, how you handle failure, how you approach the future — and how you approach God.
A.W. Tozer, one of the most prophetic and powerful voices of the twentieth century, named it plainly:
“What comes into our minds when we think about God is the most important thing about us.”
Read that again.
- Not what you do for God.
- Not how often you go to church.
- Not your spiritual resume … or how long you’ve been a Christian.
What comes into your mind —- when you think about God.
Because — the God you actually believe in — the one living in your functional imagination rather than just your theological vocabulary — that God determines everything else.
Everything.
- The size of your prayers.
- The boldness of your faith.
- The depth of your peace.
- The strength of your hope.
- The way you treat people.
- The risks you’re willing to take.
- The version of yourself you become.
If you believe in a God who is vaguely supportive, mildly interested, and generally okay with whatever you decide — you will live a small life, pray small prayers, and take no real risks.
But —- if you believe in the God of Ephesians 3:20 — the One described as able to do exceedingly, abundantly above all you could ask or think — then small is no longer an option.
Because your God is simply too big for it.
Here’s the honest truth most of us need to sit with: we walk around with a God who is:
- Too manageable.
- Too … containable.
- Too predictable.
- Too safe.
We’ve built a version of Him that fits our schedule, doesn’t interfere with our plans, and stays out of the uncomfortable places.
And we’ve called that faith —- but that is not the God of Scripture.
The God of Scripture spoke galaxies into existence out of nothing.
Parted oceans.
Raised the dead.
Walked through locked rooms.
Spoke in fire.
Showed up at burning bushes on ordinary Tuesday mornings.
Fed five thousand people with basically a few crackers and a few fish.
Turned water into wine at a party.
Isaiah 40:25–26 asks it directly: “To whom will you compare me? Who is my equal?” asks the Holy One. “Look up into the heavens. Who created all the stars? He brings them out like an army, one after another, calling each by its name. Because of his great power and incomparable strength, not a single one is missing.”
He names the stars. Every single one — and not a single one is missing.
If God holds the cosmos together with that kind of attention and care — what makes you think He’s not holding your story together too?
This week is not a conference. It is an invitation. This week you have an invitation to encounter a God who is larger than your box, bigger than your pain, greater than your failure, beyond your capacity — and still, somehow, close enough to weep with you. Close enough to whisper your name. Close enough to call you His.
Come expecting that.
Come ready to have your picture of God expanded. Not tweaked. Not adjusted slightly. Expanded. Because what you think about God is the most important thing about you. And by the end of this week, guaranteed, what you think about God will be different.
REFLECTION QUESTIONS
- When you picture God right now — before this week even starts — what do you see? Is He large or manageable? Distant or near? Demanding or gracious?
- Tozer says what we think about God is the most important thing about us. Do you agree? In what ways has your picture of God shaped your actual life?
- What’s one area of your life where you’ve been acting as though God is too small to handle it?
- Write one honest sentence describing the God you functionally live with right now — not the theological answer, but the actual one. Then write a sentence about the God of Ephesians 3:20. How wide is the gap?
- What would it look like to arrive this week with completely open hands — not just emotionally, but actually? What would need to shift in you for that to happen?
