Are you struggling to set boundaries with people? If so let’s look at how Jesus did it.  

Hi, I’m Paul here with today’s reminder. 

So think of boundaries as a fence you put up around yourself to protect your physical, emotional and psychological health. 

Healthy boundaries are necessary for a healthy relationship with people and with God.

So let’s look at three examples of Jesus setting boundaries. 

1.  Jesus set boundaries physically by sometimes distancing Himself from others to recharge.

In Luke chapter 5, word of Jesus’ ministry spread and crowds of people flocked to Him.making demands on his time, everyone wanted something from Jesus, but verse 16 tells us he often withdrew from everyone to pray.

 2.  Jesus set emotional boundaries by refusing to get pulled into pointless arguments

In Matthew 21 the religious leaders tried to pull Jesus into an argument. 

They asked him by what authority He was doing the things he was doing.  

So in verse 24 Jesus says “if you answer my question I’ll answer yours”. Then He asks them by what authority John the Baptist do what he did.

When the religious leaders refused to answer, Jesus saw that they weren’t interested in searching for truth. 

He saw that they were only interested in dragging Him into an argument so Jesus cut the conversation off then went back to preaching.

3.  Jesus set physcological boundaries by not allowing Himself to be manipulated. 

In Matthew 16 Jesus is explaining to His disciples that he needs to go to the cross.

Peter isn’t having it and tells Jesus that this can not be allowed to happen.

Jesus responds in verse 23 by saying that Peter isn’t concerned with God’s will, he’s only concerned about earthly things and again shuts the conversation down to return to preaching and teaching.

In each of these cases Jesus set boundaries so that he could stay focused on his Father’s will. Anything that took the focus off of God was something Jesus wouldn’t allow so we shouldn’t allow it either.

Let me pray for you, 

Father, help us to recognize people and situations that take our focus off of you.

Give us the strength and wisdom to say no, to walk away and to know when advice isn’t beneficial. 

Protect our hears and minds and always keep us in your love.

In Jesus name, amen.

Thank you so much for listening. Remember you can go to ifyouforget.com to subscribe to this podcast and also to enjoy past episodes. God bless you.