Word of the Week: Limits

On Sunday, we continued our series with the fourth commandment: Remember the Sabbath. One thread that ran throughout was the fact that we’re finite beings with limits. Our limitations leave us tired and in need of rest, which is where the Sabbath comes in. The Sabbath is God’s gift of rest.

We usually think of limits as a bad thing, don’t we? However, that’s not always the case. Our limits as created beings can be good things.

1. Limits give us reason to praise God – The fact that we have limits gives us a greater appreciation for the fact that God doesn’t. We get tired, but he doesn’t. We don’t know everything, but he even knows our thoughts. Truly, there’s no one else like him.

2. Limits keep us humble – Success is seductive. When we’re good at one thing, it can delude us into thinking we’re good at everything. Limits remind us there are things we can’t do. They chip away at our egos and make us humble. But who actually wants to be humbled? Christians! As we grow in humility, we grow to be more like Jesus. Isn’t that what we want most?

3. Limits help us set priorities – One of the ways that God guides us in his will is through fatigue and failure. If I don’t have time to do everything, I should be selective about what I try to do. If I don’t have the skills for something, I should focus my attention on the things for which I am best equipped. Sometimes we should power through difficulty and frustration, but other times such experiences are God’s fatherly nudge that we should invest ourselves in some things and not others.

What lessons have you learned from experiencing limitations? What limits do you struggle most to acknowledge? As we ponder these things, we learn more and more of ourselves and the limitless God who created us. And that, friends, is the beginning of knowledge.