2016, YEAR OF THE NEXT LEVEL
JANUARY, MONTH OF BLESSING
BLESSEDNESS OF LIMITATION
A New Year Message
And lest I should be exalted above measure through the abundance of the revelations, there was given to me a thorn in the flesh, the messenger of Satan to buffet me, lest I should be exalted above measure. For this thing I besought the Lord thrice, that it might depart from me. And he said unto me, My grace is sufficient for thee: for my strength is made perfect in weakness. Most gladly therefore will I rather glory in my infirmities, that the power of Christ may rest upon me. Therefore I take pleasure in infirmities, in reproaches, in necessities, in persecutions, in distresses for Christ's sake: for when I am weak, then am I strong. 2Cor. 12.7-10
Not that I speak in respect of want: for I have learned, in whatsoever state I am, therewith to be content. Phil. 4.11
One weakness of the church is she does not prepare people for real life. A lot of the prayers people will be stirred to pray this beginning of the year will focus on trying to do away with limitations. People are made to think something is wrong with them if they have any defect or weakness or inability. So we seek to do away with them or hide them as best as we could. The truth is that limitation is a part of life. Many time, we don’t have the background, family, spouse, work, body, etc. we’d like. Failure to learn to live effectively even in the face of this reality leads to a conflicted life. It’s like running from your own shadows. The result is pressure and sadness. When you focus on your limitations, even if they ultimately go away, you will live so miserably prior to the time of their resolution that it makes no difference.
Many times, limitations are a blessing because if you learn how to live with them, you live more fulfilling life. Resisting living with your limitations often results in shallow and unfulfilled living. The great apostle Paul could not become so great until he learnt how to live with his limitation. We must learn to live likewise.
The truth is you will always be limited. Get used to it. Incidentally, God is the one who puts the boundaries around us even if the devil is the instrument he uses sometimes. To fight the limitation is to risk bringing more of it on yourself. In Eden, God put one limitation on man. He should not eat of the tree of good and evil, Gen. 2.16, 17. Man violated it. The next time God would put limitation on him, there will be ten of them. We call them the Ten Commandments. Today, we have countless laws in our society to help us live peaceable all because we couldn’t keep that one.
The truth is limitations are a function of God’s love whether or not they appear or feel that way. Asking Adam not to eat of the fruit of the tree of knowledge of good and evil was to stop him from unnecessarily exposing himself to consequences he can’t handle. When parents put boundaries for their children, it is because of their love for the kids. If God would allow us to get everything we want, the result will not be excitement but boredom and possibly frustration. Supposing a man can get to sleep with all the women he wants, how far can he really go? There should be well over one billion women in the world. If one could live a life of doing nothing else satisfying himself with these women, what kind of life would that be? King Solomon tried it. He had a thousand women for his passion and desire. Where did it take him? He would declare that it was all vanity. What makes life empty is not absence of limitations but absence of purpose.
Limitation helps you focus your energy. Focusing energy is important for achieving anything worthwhile in life. No one has failed because they didn’t have everything and no one has succeeded because they had everything. Focus is a very rare virtue. The problem of life is not that we don’t have much but we are not focused much. Limitation helps you live fully because it helps you have intense focus. The goal of life is to live fully, not to remove all limitations. Joseph lived with enormous limitations and still maximized his life. He was hated by his brothers, put into a pit, sold as a slave, put in prison and forgotten by the man he did a favour. At the end, he was a huge success. Egypt rose to prosperity at a time of great limitation because they focused more. Notice that when you lose the use of one sense, the others get shaper. Ultimately, limitations are freeing. Freedom is not absence of limitations but ability to maximize available options. Freedom by definition requires limitations. One characteristic of independent countries is clear boundaries.
The apostle showed the one thing that helped him to become the greatest apostle was to learn to live with his limitations. He learned to be content in whatever situation he was in. That does not mean to not make effort to grow. It means to not focus on the limitations but to maximize ones options. Ultimately, maximizing the options available to you helps increase the options available to you. So don’t let limitations bother you. Don’t focus on them. Be grateful for them but pay attention to maximizing your available option. That is where your victory lies. You don’t have to have all the limitations removed to make it a great life or a wonderful year. Learn to focus your energy and you will be amazed at what God can produce through you.
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