Good Morning Everyone,
Our theme for this month: “Boundaries”
Our Bible verse for today: “Everything is permissible, but not everything is helpful. Everything is permissible, but not everything builds up.” 1 Corinthians 10:23 (HCSB)
Our thought for today: “We cause most of our own problems by making bad choices.”
As we conclude our devotional study on the subject of “boundaries”, I want to reemphasize the importance of personal responsibility. You and only you are responsible for your boundaries (or for the lack of them). Additionally, if your boundaries have been breached it is almost certainly your own fault. You either created the situation yourself, or you allowed it to exist. Either way it’s your responsibility, so don’t blame it on others.
In 1 Corinthians 10:23 Paul was teaching an important lesson about Christian liberty. He was making the point that in Christ we have great freedom to make choices about the context and content of our lives. But in order to make good choices we have to be spiritually mature and our choices have to be Spirit-led. This is such an important lesson that he taught it twice in the same letter, once in 1 Corinthians 6:12 and again here in 10:23.
This “Christian Liberty” that we have, and the importance of using that liberty wisely to make good choices, applies to all of life and it certainly applies to the choices we make regarding the boundaries we establish. Life is filled with lots and lots of good things – good activities, good people, good obligations, and good ministry – good things that we could attempt to fit into our lives. But there isn’t room for everyone and for everything. Choices have to be made. Good choices. And if you don’t make those choices, if you don’t establish good boundaries, then you end up like that proverbial five pound bag crammed with ten pounds of stuff – it’s bursting at the seams and spilling over the edges.
There are lots and lots of possibilities – but as Paul teaches here in 1 Corinthians, not everything is helpful and not everything builds up. Sometimes more is too much.
As we end this month of considering the boundaries we have (or need to have), I encourage you to spend some extra time in prayer about it. Ask the Lord to help you see your life clearly and objectively. Then ask Him to help you understand what adjustments need to be made. And then finally, as was stressed in yesterday’s devotional, if changes need to be made, if people or things or activities have to go, be a mature Christian and handle it in a way that honors Christ and blesses others. Don’t be petty or small or mean in how you go about shedding things (or even people). How we handle things like this is a pretty clear indicator about how spiritually mature we really are.
Remember, when it comes to boundary issues, the responsibility is yours and yours alone. Make good choices. Then implement those choices in a way that honors Christ and blesses others.
God Bless,
Pastor Jim
Oak Hill Baptist Church 