You were created to be a rubber band…the more you stretch the farther you’ll go. Though God is a God of safety and security in terms of salvation, He is everything but that in terms of your mission on earth. God wants to stretch you to your limits. He wants to push you out of your comfort zone into the faith zone. It is only in the faith zone that we truly grow into our potential.

 God is an expander, a maximizer, a builder. He will always be challenging you to be, do, and give more. Life is not about arriving somewhere where we don’t have to work anymore; it’s about always growing to be more like Christ. Think about this…the older people get the less likely they’ll stretch. Literally, the older we get the more physically brittle we become. We stop exercising, stop moving, stop stretching as we get more and more lazy. Unfortunately, so goes our physical conditioning, so goes our spiritual conditioning as well. Our sin nature, that we fight against, always seeks the path of least resistance. So we opt for the easier route rather than the rewarding route. But God is everything but the path of least resistance. Jesus referred to this…

Matthew 7:13,14 (NIV)

13 “Enter through the narrow gate. For wide is the gate and broad is the road that leads to destruction, and many enter through it. 14 But small is the gate and narrow the road that leads to life, and only a few find it.”

 God will stretch you right before He launches you into a new season of your destiny, just like a rubber band. The more you’re willing to stretch, the greater your capacity to soar. T.S. Elliot said, “Only those who will risk going too far can possibly find out how far one can go.”

Think about this…

Exodus 14:10-25 (NIV)

10 As Pharaoh approached, the Israelites looked up, and there were the Egyptians, marching after them. They were terrified and cried out to the Lord. 11 They said to Moses, “Was it because there were no graves in Egypt that you brought us to the desert to die? What have you done to us by bringing us out of Egypt? 12 Didn’t we say to you in Egypt, ‘Leave us alone; let us serve the Egyptians’? It would have been better for us to serve the Egyptians than to die in the desert!”

13 Moses answered the people, “Do not be afraid. Stand firm and you will see the deliverance the Lord will bring you today. The Egyptians you see today you will never see again. 14 The Lord will fight for you; you need only to be still.”

15 Then the Lord said to Moses, “Why are you crying out to me? Tell the Israelites to move on. 16 Raise your staff and stretch out your hand over the sea to divide the water so that the Israelites can go through the sea on dry ground. 17 I will harden the hearts of the Egyptians so that they will go in after them. And I will gain glory through Pharaoh and all his army, through his chariots and his horsemen. 18 The Egyptians will know that I am the Lord when I gain glory through Pharaoh, his chariots and his horsemen.”

19 Then the angel of God, who had been traveling in front of Israel’s army, withdrew and went behind them. The pillar of cloud also moved from in front and stood behind them, 20 coming between the armies of Egypt and Israel. Throughout the night the cloud brought darkness to the one side and light to the other side; so neither went near the other all night long.

21 Then Moses stretched out his hand over the sea, and all that night the Lord drove the sea back with a strong east wind and turned it into dry land. The waters were divided, 22 and the Israelites went through the sea on dry ground, with a wall of water on their right and on their left.

23 The Egyptians pursued them, and all Pharaoh’s horses and chariots and horsemen followed them into the sea. 24 During the last watch of the night the Lord looked down from the pillar of fire and cloud at the Egyptian army and threw it into confusion. 25 He jammed the wheels of their chariots so that they had difficulty driving. And the Egyptians said, “Let’s get away from the Israelites! The Lord is fighting for them against Egypt.”

It wasn’t until Moses stretched out his hands that God began to move. It wasn’t so much about stretching his physical hand as it was an act of stretching his faith. His hands represented his belief to act on what God said to do. Imagine being Moses and God telling you to stretch out your hands to part the sea. That would sound crazy in the natural. What if Moses stepped up to the sea stretched out his hands and nothing happened? You see, God asked him to do something totally uncomfortable in order to activate his faith. He wanted Moses to stretch and then the power would prevail. Remember, there is always a stretching before a sending.