Sign up to save your podcasts
Or
Share TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 9 2021
Share to email
Share to Facebook
Share to X
Share to email
Share to Facebook
Share to X
Or
TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 9 2021
Inside our theme of love this month, this week we are focusing on the placement of healthy boundaries. In talking about this topic, we have to establish the difference between barriers and boundaries. Sometimes hurts have been so bad that we build barriers to keep people out, sometimes to keep everyone out. Other times, when we feel threatened on any level, we create emotional, mental, and spiritual roadblocks. We decide to “close roads” to keep someone from getting near us. But real love, the biblical brand of love, is not about being defensive but being proactive.
A barrier is anything that hinders forward progress and shrinks our influence. A boundary is a line we draw to protect what is inside from what is outside. This is not about restriction and limitation, but freedom. Listen to Jesus’s words …
As Jesus was walking along, he saw a man named Matthew sitting at his tax collector’s booth. “Follow me and be my disciple,” Jesus said to him. So Matthew got up and followed him. Later, Matthew invited Jesus and his disciples to his home as dinner guests, along with many tax collectors and other disreputable sinners. But when the Pharisees saw this, they asked his disciples, “Why does your teacher eat with such scum?” When Jesus heard this, he said, “Healthy people don’t need a doctor—sick people do.” Then he added, “Now go and learn the meaning of this Scripture: ‘I want you to show mercy, not offer sacrifices.’ For I have come to call not those who think they are righteous, but those who know they are sinners.” (Matthew 9:9-13 NLT)
Did you pick up on the cultural barrier? The Pharisees called the people Jesus was hanging out with “scum.” But did you catch that Jesus took down the barrier from some and put up a boundary for others? Well, if he did, then we need to consider the same.
What drove Jesus’ actions and words? Freedom, righteousness, justice, mercy, and love. When we follow Him, we have the best opportunity to do the same. Tear down barriers made by man and install boundaries built by God.
Let’s pray together: “Heavenly Father, I have to admit that sometimes I act like You, but sometimes I act like a Pharisee. And all the time, I am a sinner. Teach me, help me, to take down barriers to love in my life and build only the boundaries You are okay with. As above, so below.”
View all episodes
By Kindred Resources / SPS
5
1313 ratings
Inside our theme of love this month, this week we are focusing on the placement of healthy boundaries. In talking about this topic, we have to establish the difference between barriers and boundaries. Sometimes hurts have been so bad that we build barriers to keep people out, sometimes to keep everyone out. Other times, when we feel threatened on any level, we create emotional, mental, and spiritual roadblocks. We decide to “close roads” to keep someone from getting near us. But real love, the biblical brand of love, is not about being defensive but being proactive.
A barrier is anything that hinders forward progress and shrinks our influence. A boundary is a line we draw to protect what is inside from what is outside. This is not about restriction and limitation, but freedom. Listen to Jesus’s words …
As Jesus was walking along, he saw a man named Matthew sitting at his tax collector’s booth. “Follow me and be my disciple,” Jesus said to him. So Matthew got up and followed him. Later, Matthew invited Jesus and his disciples to his home as dinner guests, along with many tax collectors and other disreputable sinners. But when the Pharisees saw this, they asked his disciples, “Why does your teacher eat with such scum?” When Jesus heard this, he said, “Healthy people don’t need a doctor—sick people do.” Then he added, “Now go and learn the meaning of this Scripture: ‘I want you to show mercy, not offer sacrifices.’ For I have come to call not those who think they are righteous, but those who know they are sinners.” (Matthew 9:9-13 NLT)
Did you pick up on the cultural barrier? The Pharisees called the people Jesus was hanging out with “scum.” But did you catch that Jesus took down the barrier from some and put up a boundary for others? Well, if he did, then we need to consider the same.
What drove Jesus’ actions and words? Freedom, righteousness, justice, mercy, and love. When we follow Him, we have the best opportunity to do the same. Tear down barriers made by man and install boundaries built by God.
Let’s pray together: “Heavenly Father, I have to admit that sometimes I act like You, but sometimes I act like a Pharisee. And all the time, I am a sinner. Teach me, help me, to take down barriers to love in my life and build only the boundaries You are okay with. As above, so below.”