Graceful Limitations - Encouragement Café - May 9, 2016

Graceful Limitations by Annah Matthews

Monday, May 9, 2016

I was given the gift of a handicap to keep me in constant touch with my limitations.  Satan's angel did his best to get me down; what he in fact did was push me to my knees.  No danger then of walking around high and mighty!  At first I didn't think of it as a gift, and begged God to remove it.  Three times I did that, and then he told me,

My grace is enough; it's all you need.  My strength comes into its own in your weakness.

Once I heard that, I was glad to let it happen.  I quit focusing on the handicap and began appreciating the gift.  It was a case of Christ's strength moving in on my weakness.  Now I take limitations in stride, and with good cheer, these limitations that cut me down to size - abuse, accidents, opposition, bad breaks.  I just let Christ take over!  And so the weaker I get, the stronger I become.

2 Corinthians 12:7-10 MSG

Have you experienced limitations, unfulfilled longings, or shattered dreams in your life?

For three and half years my limitation was infertility and the inability to conceive.  It was a huge roadblock for me and Satan wanted me to believe that I was less of a person, a woman, a human because of my inability to bear more children.

I begged God to open my womb and allow us to carry a healthy child to full-term.  I asked Him to take away my infertility and to enlarge our family.  For many years my first response was to pray away my limitation, beg God to give me the desires of my heart, and in a sense ask Him to make me more perfect by the world’s standards.

I was ashamed, confused, and hurt.  But slowly God began to show me that the limitations I placed on myself were actually the ways He was perfecting my faith.  

I was not loved any less by God because of my earthly imperfections.  I am perfectly loved because He is Perfect Love.  And my imperfections began to show me how only through Christ could I be made complete.

Through the healing power of His Word, Wisdom and Truth He began to show me some things.

When the enemy says I am imperfect; God Word says He is using that limitation to perfect me. (2 Corinthians 12:9)

What Satan calls my earthly imperfections; God calls our path to perfection in Christ. (Hebrews 7:10-12)

If I never had any limitations in my life, then how could I ever know how to trust God? (Proverbs 3:5-6)

If I had every dream satisfied, why would I ever get down on my knees to pray? (James 5:7-8)

If every longing were fulfilled immediately, then how would I ever learn to wait patiently upon the Lord? (Ecclesiastes 7:8)

The enemy would love for us to see our weaknesses as a handicap and convince us that we are insufficient to do anything.  But Christ tells us that our so-called weaknesses are actually gifts and He is using them to perfect us to be more like Christ and dependent upon God.

Maybe our limitations are exactly what God intended so that we could use it as a starting point to minister to others.  As we allow God to transform us from the inside out, we realize that God allows us to experience weaknesses in our lives because it is then that we are able to draw upon His strength.

It is God who arms me with strength and makes my way perfect.  2 Samuel 22:33 NIV

What have you seen as your weakness, limitation, or imperfection?  What area of your life do you need God’s strength the most?  What is He trying to perfect in You?  What is it that you have told God you can’t do because you don’t measure up?

Consider asking God to show you how the very thing you consider a weakness can be considered a gift and can be used to honor and glorify Him.

Oh Heavenly Father, would You help us to root out the things in our lives that we see as imperfections and limitations and embrace them to grow in our faith and glorify You.  Would You let us see ourselves not as broken and unusable, but as an imperfect girl with a Perfect Heavenly Father.  Would You allow our weaknesses to be perfected in You and let us claim the promise that,

He who began a good work in you will be faithful to complete it until the day of Christ.  Philippians 1:6

© 2016 by Annah Matthews.  All rights reserved.

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