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 communicate, discover new things, and live beyond the “normal” limits that 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 very easily become accustomed to boundaries and rules, and we and others can become 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. Many have allowed circumstances and the tactics of the devil to define and confine us to venturing only where it “seems” safe or to go to places in God which can be explained or have been “done” before.
However I sense that God wants so much more for us. . If you look through God’s Word you will discover many accounts of people who refused to live within the limits of their time. They pushed the boundaries of their faith, experience, race, 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 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 others or the devil have hedged you in, seeking to lock you into a lifestyle, thinking and system that was never God’s plan for you. Because Jesus died and rose again to release us from limitations and systems of the world so the we might be free. “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)
Today choose to live outside the box and walk in the freedom that Jesus paid with his life to give you.
“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)
“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)
Prayer: Jesus thank you for the freedom you offer me. Please help me to live beyond my own self imposed walls and the systems of the world, so that I can truly live free in you. In Jesus Name Amen.
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