Someone told me recently that living within our God-given limits is good. A lot of someones have told me similar things, almost like I’m bad with limits…
Ahem.
God has been reinforcing the message, putting limits in place that I simply can’t control or push out of the way. I’m having to rethink some commitments, change my pace, and accept some ambiguity I’d usually push past.
In needing to adjust to these limits, I’m realizing that growing “into” my limits means shrinking – shrinking my expectations, goals, schedule and responsibilities.
Growing by Shrinking
That feels unbiblical – isn’t growing in Christ always meant to be doing more for Jesus? Not growing by shrinking?
God has kindly brought to mind the heroes of the faith and some of my favorite Bible passages, like Hebrews 11-12:3.
God growing His people by shrinking circumstances, abilities, expectations and so on isn’t new.
Looking through the heroes of the faith – people like Moses, Joseph, Jacob, Noah, David, Samuel – God grew them all at times by setting them on difficult, obscure paths in unexpected contexts, by removing their strength and taking away things He’d built up for them. God changed their expectations, their pace, their goals, their responsibilities. Noah’s whole world shrunk down to an ark!
But God’s limits in those seasons of their lives led them toward Him and brought them through their part in the better plan He has accomplished through Jesus.
God isn’t coy about His method of growing by shrinking. He tells us we’ll have trouble, tells us our weakness will be a means of recognizing and demonstrating His glory and power, and tells us that it’s in losing our lives we will gain.
In the upside-down kingdom of God, less is often more.
Limits That Lead Us
Going back to the heroes of the faith like those mentioned in Hebrews 11, there’s this lovely concluding thought in Hebrews 12:1-2:
“Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles. And let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us, fixing our eyes on Jesus, the pioneer and perfecter of faith.”
Sometimes I forget that the race marked out for us isn’t one width or incline the whole way. We face different limits in places along the narrow path of following Jesus. We come to certain points when the “everything that hinders” includes good goals, expectations, and abilities He has given us. We have to stop and toss off sins we thought were helping us. We reach spots where perseverance is so hard that fighting to push on isn’t feasible – we’re just fighting to keep our eyes fixed on Jesus and waiting to see how the Pioneer and Perfecter of our faith will make the next steps.
Our limits are God-given lanes leading to Him. If the way marked out for us by the Lord for a time feels restrictive, we can trust we’re still growing in Him – just maybe by shrinking.
Our limits are God-given lanes leading to Him. If the way marked out for us by the Lord for a time feels restrictive, we can trust we’re still growing in Him – just maybe by shrinking. Share on X