Often we need to keep an open mind about what God will do. God is often a God of many surprises.
We expect this or that and he does something else. It isn't as if God is random, rather is it that he sees the whole picture and we look at the tiny threads of life.
We often fail to see our limits and lack of perception of the whole picture. We feel we can make better judgments than God although we often have very limited information.
We need to humble ourselves and allow God to chip through our pride. God has the answers and not us.
If we feel God is wrong the issue is at our end and not at God's. We often simply need to step back and remind ourselves of who we are. Our flaws, our limits, and our lack of knowledge.
And trust that God's goodness and wisdom is sufficient.
Showing posts with label limits. Show all posts
Showing posts with label limits. Show all posts
Tuesday, October 27, 2015
Saturday, July 18, 2015
Friendship, Humility, and Limits
True friendship is faithful in small things. You find everyone is your friend when things are well.
True friends are not absent when things are poor. They remember the details of our lives and begin to understand us even when we do not speak.
At times we are encouraged to do more and more in the church for God. Doing more for God is always noble as long as more is more. At times the church encourages us to interact more and always do more with others.
At times doing more can begin to harm our friendships. There can be an issue with having too many friendships. The friendships end up becoming a long list of acquaintances. Many people have had the issue of losing four or five dear friends for the sake of two hundred acquaintances.
We can be friendly with everyone but not friends with everyone. We can show the love of Christ to everyone but we cannot deeply invest in everyone.
It often takes humility to see our limits. Not a false humility which sees that we can do nothing. That is not humility; it's a shirking of responsibility. True humility sees what it can accomplish and does it, but accepts its limits.
True humility is not a self depreciation but an acceptance of our abilities and limits. It sees what we can or may be able do do and acts while recognizing the limits of our time and energy.
Often Jesus went into solitude to pray. There was more ministry that could be done, but more is not always more in ministry.
True friends are not absent when things are poor. They remember the details of our lives and begin to understand us even when we do not speak.
At times we are encouraged to do more and more in the church for God. Doing more for God is always noble as long as more is more. At times the church encourages us to interact more and always do more with others.
At times doing more can begin to harm our friendships. There can be an issue with having too many friendships. The friendships end up becoming a long list of acquaintances. Many people have had the issue of losing four or five dear friends for the sake of two hundred acquaintances.
We can be friendly with everyone but not friends with everyone. We can show the love of Christ to everyone but we cannot deeply invest in everyone.
It often takes humility to see our limits. Not a false humility which sees that we can do nothing. That is not humility; it's a shirking of responsibility. True humility sees what it can accomplish and does it, but accepts its limits.
True humility is not a self depreciation but an acceptance of our abilities and limits. It sees what we can or may be able do do and acts while recognizing the limits of our time and energy.
Often Jesus went into solitude to pray. There was more ministry that could be done, but more is not always more in ministry.
Saturday, January 10, 2015
Peace Through Accepting Truth
One way to help with feeling more at peace and not overwhelmed by the busyness of life is to practice and grow in the wisdom of being humble and honest about limitations. There are countless opportunities and possibilities in life, but it's wise to keep in mind that limitations exist for every person. Every one has limits in hours available, physical and emotional energy, and money, whether or not they're honest enough to admit it.
That's what the Bible means by humility. It's realizing and admitting the truth about ourselves in order to respond appropriately and well and to be healthy, because we then see what we need to make the right choices.
One example is how many people approach friendships. They try to be close friends with everyone and in the end feel like they aren't friends with anyone. The reason is that with the amount of hours that person has, they really can't invest deeply into 15 people. Both that person and each "friend" are affected by desiring a close friendship but feeling like something isn't connecting, wondering why the friendship isn't getting deeper or knowing that the friend just doesn't have enough time for them.
It'd be much wiser for the person to acknowledge the truth of the amount of time and energy available, and that most likely will mean that only a small amount or even one person can be invested with quality time, while still meeting the many other responsibilities they have in life.
Another example would just be a very long day's to-do list of activities or tasks. It may be too long and a person may feel too overwhelmed because they aren't able or are stressing out about finishing everything, but they haven't really practiced discernment in thinking through how much really can be accomplished.
It may be hard to be humble enough to discern this because many people act like (pretend) they have an endless amount of energy and time. Also, each person has different amounts of time and energy depending on their giftings and life situation. So if a person is comparing themselves with others and not keeping that in mind, it might cause them to feel discouraged or set unrealistic expectations for themselves.
That's what the Bible means by humility. It's realizing and admitting the truth about ourselves in order to respond appropriately and well and to be healthy, because we then see what we need to make the right choices.
One example is how many people approach friendships. They try to be close friends with everyone and in the end feel like they aren't friends with anyone. The reason is that with the amount of hours that person has, they really can't invest deeply into 15 people. Both that person and each "friend" are affected by desiring a close friendship but feeling like something isn't connecting, wondering why the friendship isn't getting deeper or knowing that the friend just doesn't have enough time for them.
It'd be much wiser for the person to acknowledge the truth of the amount of time and energy available, and that most likely will mean that only a small amount or even one person can be invested with quality time, while still meeting the many other responsibilities they have in life.
Another example would just be a very long day's to-do list of activities or tasks. It may be too long and a person may feel too overwhelmed because they aren't able or are stressing out about finishing everything, but they haven't really practiced discernment in thinking through how much really can be accomplished.
It may be hard to be humble enough to discern this because many people act like (pretend) they have an endless amount of energy and time. Also, each person has different amounts of time and energy depending on their giftings and life situation. So if a person is comparing themselves with others and not keeping that in mind, it might cause them to feel discouraged or set unrealistic expectations for themselves.
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