Read Lamentations 3:1-33. The world tells us we can do or be anything we want. Sometimes, we are even guilty of telling our children this. But pause for a moment and we realise it’s just not true. God has placed limits on all of us, however gifted we might be. Our physical body has limits: we age, some of us experience health issues that limit us, one day we will finish our lives with unfinished goals and dreams. Our family is a gift, but it is also a source of limits – it gives us our ethnicity, it places us in a country of birth and in a particular culture. Our marital status gives us limits – whether that’s married, single, with children or childless. Our intellectual ability has a limit – we cannot be good at everything. Our talents and gifts are limited. Our material wealth – even if you’re a millionaire – is limited. Your personality and temperament are both a gift and a limit. Your time is limited. Your work and relationships have limits. Work is hard. Relationships are never perfect. Even our spiritual understanding is limited. Our God is a revealing God, but much of what he has revealed about himself is a mystery.
Many of us react to these limits by trying to do more than God intended. We burnout trying to do more than we can. We get stressed and blame others for it. We run around frantically believing the world would stop if we did. Or we get depressed because what we thought we could achieve seems so unachievable that it doesn’t seem worth doing anything at all. But accepting our limits is a necessary part of being a Christian. It helps us to see again that there is a God, but it is not us! It keeps us grounded. It keeps us humble. What limit might you need to accept today?
THINK IT OVER
Does the way in which you are living fit your God-given nature? Are you being faithful to your God-given talents, your unique story, and your weaknesses?
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