Doing things “outside of the box” or beyond the boundaries of systems and methods which are the norm always challenges people. It challenges our beliefs, values and what is important, and questions if there is more than one way of being able to achieve, reach our goals, love Jesus and live out our faith. This is evident in how we educate our children, raise our families, the places we choose to live, the way we worship and serve God, how we live out our relationships, communicate, discover new things, and live beyond the “normal” limits that mankind and the systems of the world have restricted us to.
Being “different”, and choosing to live “outside the box” often threatens people. Many even find this freedom confronting. We can easily become accustomed to limits, to boundaries and rules, and if truth were told we may be quite fearful and offended when others venture beyond the known norm.
Yet the bible says that when we ask Jesus into our lives He takes off the limits and offers us freedom instead. He gives us freedom to choose, to grow, to discover and to really live. The battle is whether we will be brave enough to embrace that type of lifestyle and belief system, or whether we stay within the confines of the status quo.
Even the church and many of those who seek to follow Jesus and His ways still remain locked behind walls of religion, rules and limitations in their thinking, and expressions of faith. Instead of believing that all things are possible for the person who believes, we have allowed circumstances and the tactics of the devil to define and confine us to venturing only where it “seems” safe.
However I sense that God wants so much more for us. His Word says so, the moving of His Spirit says so, and the demonstrations of His miracle working power say so. If you look through God’s Word you will discover account after account of people who refused to live within the limits of their time. They pushed the boundaries of their faith, their race, their gender and their natural abilities.
One of the people whose life is documented in the Bible is Abraham. He dared to believe God, forsaking the limits of his time in leaving everything he knew to venture forth into a land he did not know. He believed when all natural hope was lost of fathering a child to his wife, and He believed when God spoke and directed him on how to live. He chose to live out his life beyond limits, and this is why God calls Him the “Father of faith.” (Genesis 12:1-3; 15:6; Romans 4:16)
Today as we celebrate the Easter season I encourage you to examine the limits on your life. Are they self-imposed because of your fear and lack of understanding, or where the devil has hedged you in, seeking to lock you into a lifestyle, thinking and system that was never God’s plan for you. Because one of the main reasons Jesus died and rose again is to release us from these bondages and bring us freedom. “For who the son sets free is free indeed.” (John 8:36)
Jesus himself said these words; “The Spirit of the Lord is on Me, because He has anointed Me to preach good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim deliverance to the captives and recovery of sight to the blind, to release the oppressed, to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favour.” (Luke 4:18)
“So Christ has truly set us free. Now make sure that you stay free, and don’t get tied up again in slavery to the law.” (Galatians 5:1)
“For God so loved the world that He gave His one and only Son, that everyone who believes in Him shall not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through Him.” (John 3:16-17)
Here is a song called “On the Shores” to encourage you today to be brave enough to live outside the box and to see how God sees: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zYuXNgj-0BQ
Prayer: Jesus thank you for the freedom you offer me. Please help me to live beyond my own self imposed walls, and the system of the world, so that I can truly live free in you. In Jesus Name Amen.
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