August 15
Scripture focus: Dear, dear Corinthians, I can't tell you how much I long for you to enter this wide-open, spacious life. We didn't fence you in. The smallness you feel comes from within you. Your lives aren't small, but you're living them in a small way. I'm speaking as plainly as I can and with great affection. Open up your lives. Live openly and expansively! 2 Corinthians 6:11-13 (The Message)
When the serpent asked Eve about the tasty-looking-but-forbidden-fruit tree, Eve had an interesting response. I hope I'm not making too much of this, but if you look at what God said to Eve in Genesis two and what she reports he said in Genesis three, it appears as if she added the statement about "don't touch it." I wonder if Eve was adding an extra boundary for herself, sort of a hedge of protection against temptation. Sometimes when we fear our own ability to know and do God's good, pleasing and perfect will, we humans add extra "boundaries." This rarely works. Living life by rules hasn't really proven to be a successful life plan for most of us.
Boundaries were never intended to be fortresses or moats. We all know the dangers of living life without limits. Proverbs 25:28 says "a person without self-control is like a house with its doors and windows knocked out."
If we live as if God wants us kept in a small box, something is wrong. Boundaries are not limits to our liberty, they are guides that help us not get caught and brought back into captivity!
Christ has set us free to live a free life. So take your stand! Never again let anyone put a harness of slavery on you. Galatians 5:1 (The Message)
May we experience the wide-open, spacious life God has planned for each of us today!
Recommended reading: 1 Kings 19-22
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