I spoke with a very dear sister in Christ who told me that her life seems to be a series of one setback after another. She’s perplexed about all the disappointments she’s experienced and wonders where she’s going wrong. As a faithful Christian woman, she believes she’s living a Godly and holy life. She said to me, “Why am I seeing so many of my friends getting married, achieving their goals, and being rewarded left and right? Yet here I am, 49 and still stuck. They could care less about following the example of Christ, but it seems as though they are still getting blessed. I don’t know why I keep trying, because nothing seems to go my way.” Even though she didn’t say it, it’s clear this woman thinks that God is not giving her what she feels she deserves in life. This is not the truth, and thinking this way means that we need to go deeper within our own selves.
All of us, as rational and sane individuals, live at a certain level in life. This level is our boundary point. It is unique to every individual because it is derived from our own core beliefs. It’s not the things we say we believe. It’s the things we really believe. Our boundary point consists of what we believe at the deepest level about God and about ourselves. So, it’s at the core of who we are. The issue is that most of us don’t acknowledge this. We become frustrated and disappointed because we’re expecting to live above what we actually believe.
Heavenly Father tells us in Romans 12:2(NLT), “And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, that you may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God.” As born-again believers in the Lord Jesus Christ, our boundary point should be progressively fluid. It should be ever expanding and increasing as we learn more about the authority and power of Christ that we have received. We live from the inside out. We live from our cores, so our stance must be one of examining and testing ourselves about what we really believe, because our boundary point tells the true story about our level of faith and believing in God.
The old saying that when we know better, we can do better very definitely applies. God will not force us to know and trust who He has made us through Jesus Christ. He will not force us to have unwavering faith in Him and His ability and willingness to bless us. He has commanded us in Romans 12:2 to change the way we think. It’s up to us to breech the walls of our comfort zone and set a new boundary point in our believing, so that we believe God higher and live life greater than we did before.
The sister in Christ that I spoke with didn’t come flat-out and say that she believed God was doing her wrong, but the doubt and disappointment in Him was apparent in her tone, questions, and statements. She believed that God had let her down not once but repeatedly. She believed He was holding her back and withholding His blessings from her. Like you and me, she says that she knows that God is love, and that He is the Creator of all that we survey. She knows He’s Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the end, and she knows that His power has no equal. He can do anything and everything, and this sister is well aware that He alone holds her tomorrows. She knows all this, yet, she also thinks that God is not blessing her with a better life. Faith cannot support this kind of ambiguity regarding God’s goodness. This kind of thinking—maybe He’ll bless me and maybe He won’t—is contradictory, and where there is contradiction in our thinking, believing, and understanding, faith can potentially be diminished or extinguished.
Jesus Christ told one of the churches in Revelation 3:2(NLT), “Wake up! Strengthen what little remains, for even what is left is almost dead. I find that your actions do not meet the requirements of my God.” Whenever and wherever we are struggling to believe God’s extraordinary plan for blessing our lives, some area of our believing has fallen asleep. We must WAKE UP! We have it twisted in some respects. We must wake up and recognize that we are not responding to life; life is responding to us. Life is taking us as far as we are willing to go. It will not exceed our boundary point. We must be willing to ask the Holy Spirit to help us go deep, so we can address the fears and wrong believing that continue to hold us back.
Many of us have spent a lot of time in our secret moments thinking that God has disappointed us. We believe that He’s the reason that we can’t make headway in life. The reality is that God has empowered us in every way through the Lord Jesus Christ. We are more than overcomers because of our union with our Savior and Redeemer, and God has blessed us with all spiritual blessings. So, the issue is never about what God hasn’t or won’t do for us, because He’s blessed us beyond our capacity to comprehend it all. The issue is that we have set a boundary point for ourselves, and we are not willing to acknowledge it or go beyond it.
If we are telling God we are ready for new blessings, He’s looking at what we’re doing to back up what we expect to receive. He’s looking at our boundary point and what we’re doing to expand it. Our actions, our get-up-and-go, and attentiveness to go higher in Him signals whether we are mentally and spiritually prepared for all that He has in store.
It is impossible to rise above what we believe. We tell ourselves that we’re in a place of faith and right believing, but for many of us, our actions do not back this up. Our confessions are about being tired and emotionally exhausted, and our actions mirror this. We hangout and abide beneath the spectrum of vitality and enthusiasm, yet we ask God to give us blessings that equal those things. Recognize that the Holy Spirit can show us the destination of our potential and promise, but he can only take us there if our believing signals we are ready to go.
Someone disappointed my dear sister, and she internalized it and wouldn’t see herself above it. That was the wrong move. Again, life is responding to us, so the question is what are we giving it? Are you giving it love by seeing God as the loving Father who delights in blessing you? Are you backing that love up by loving your glorious self? Are you doing all that you can to increase your physical and mental stamina? Are you engaged with your own vitality and hopeful about your potential in Christ, or have you lost your way? If you have, find it! Christ has asked us to carry on in his absence, and we must believe that we can do this in a way that brings glory to God. Thinking, living, and abiding in that higher register, that is the kind of thinking and believing that continually expands our boundary point.
Hebrews 13:20-21(NKJV) states, “20 Now may the God of peace who brought up our Lord Jesus from the dead, that great Shepherd of the sheep, through the blood of the everlasting covenant, 21 make you complete in every good work to do His will, working in you what is well pleasing in His sight, through Jesus Christ, to whom be glory forever and ever. Amen.” God has made you complete in every good work to do HIS Will. Get on board with that. Change your trajectory, because it takes a paradigm shift to walk in harmony with God and in harmony with our highest self in Christ.
We can speak the words of our liberty in Christ, but we must really believe it in the depth of our souls. This isn’t about any other person but you. You do not have to continue disappointing yourself. That’s not what God wants. His purpose for your life cannot be fulfilled without your participation, so be great at it! Invite the Holy Spirit that indwells you to help you expand your boundary point. Get excited about YOU and commit yourself to actions that back that up.
Never underestimate the power of your example and the power of God’s love working in and through you. Be new in your attitude EVERY DAY! Set spiritual and physical goals and pursue them with the mission of being your best for Jesus Christ. Be determined to let your light shine, and don’t allow an abyss of sadness and disappointment to dim it. BE the unexpectedly you. DO the unexpectedly you, do the things that affirm your love for God and for yourself. When you do, life can’t help but respond. ■
Scripture quotations marked (NLT) are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Inc., Wheaton, Illinois 60189. All rights reserved.
Scripture taken from the New King James Version. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson, Inc. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
“Be the Unexpectedly You”, written by Reverend Fran Mack, edited by Kim Times, for Sundie Morning Sistas ©2022. All rights reserved. All done to the glory of God through Jesus Christ, our Lord!