keep out for my own good

When I was young I spent many weekends at my friend’s farm. Her parents own a lot of land that we loved to explore. One of our adventures led us to a beautiful pasture — land that her Dad had told us was off limits to us. It was even surrounded by a barbwire fence to keep us out.

One day we decided to go where we had no business going. We took turns holding apart the fence as we each carefully crawled through to the forbidden land. Our rebellious adventure was short lived as we spent our time constantly watching for her dad. We decided to return to our land of freedom, but as I was trying to crawl back to the other side my friend’s foot slipped. Her movement released the fence and the barbwire came up and snatched some skin off my left forearm. To this day my arm bears a scar that is a reminder that when boundaries are crossed you can get hurt.

Recently Casting Crown’s lead singer, Mark Hall wrote a book called, Your Own Jesus: a God Insistent on Making it Personal. While scanning an excerpt from the book, one sentence Mark wrote caught my eye that supports our need for godly boundaries, “I have a saved spirit but I still think with a lost brain.”

When a situation arises, your feet won’t take you places you don’t belong, if you have boundaries. Your thought life won’t take you on a trip of ungodly thinking, if you have boundaries. I have lived life with the motto, “You only live once,” and I can tell you that those are the days when my heart was filled with regret. Satan has unspoken permission to have free roam of your heart and he will take whatever piece of it you are willing to give him, if you have no boundaries.

This carefree girl who used to balk at restrictions now sees that boundaries don’t restrict me; they actually allow me to live in freedom. As Mark Hall said, we think with lost brains. That is why we must memorize and be in God’s Word daily.

So, today sweet Girlfriend, commit yourself to leading a life with boundaries that result in pleasing your King. He loves and adores you and wants to lead you on a path of righteousness.

Let Him.

Resources…

The Bible

“Everything is permissible for me — but not everything is beneficial.” — 1 Corinthians 6:12a

“Your word is a lamp to my feet and a light for my path.” — Psalm 119:105

Something Else …

“We are what I call perfectly imperfect. In other words, we were each born with a sinful nature that often controls us and leads us to do things that go against what we really want to do.” — Lisa Whittle, Behind Those Eyes: What’s Really Going on Inside the Souls of Women

Lisa Whittle’s book mentioned above is God changing when applied to your life. In the back of each chapter is a Bible study that you can do alone or a group.

Check out the video under Explore Culture about boundaries vs. shackles.

Lelia Chealey is a woman who loves ice cream, reading, writing and thinking about exercise. She enjoys leading on line Bible studies with women all around the world. You can learn more at her blog, Write from the Heart.

Do you have boundaries in place in your life? Do you struggle with crossing over those boundaries? Share with Lelia by leaving a comment or question here.