Limitations - Part Three

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“Self-Set Limitations”

Have you ever known someone who sabotages their own dreams by self-imposed limitations? They have a picture in their mind of what it would take and what it would look like to accomplish their dream, ambition and/or responsibility. If there are any road blocks along the way, they are stuck and feel their destiny is now unattainable. All that’s left is the dream of “what could have been” and a whole bunch of excuses.

The good news is, as Christians, we have a God given destiny…no man-made, or demon developed scheme can keep us from who He’s created us to be. However, if we set limits on ourselves, AND on God, then those very limitations we speak forth become like “word curses” that we speak into reality over ourselves, and replace God’s plan that He had for us.

Most likely we’re not aware of the limits we’re confessing. What are some possible self-set limitations? Things like: “If I had gone to college, I would…” “If I just had the money to do...” “I don’t have a seminary degree so I can’t…” “How can I…, when ….?” The “if” and the “how” questions have been stumbling people for years. Remember when the Angel came to both Mary and Zachariah-they asked a question of how can this happen? The difference was Mary wanted details on the plan, while Zachariah was full of doubt, questioning “how can that possibly happen?”

Here’s a perfect example in Scripture of what I’m talking about in John 5:1-18. The crippled man at the pool of Bethesda had been lying there everyday for thirty-eight years. The Bible says when Jesus learned the man had been that way so long, He asked “do you want to get well?” In vs. 7, the crippled man answered with a list of limitations...

“I have no one to help me into the pool”, “other people get there before I do”…Seriously, after thirty-eight years, I would have been making enough of a scene that someone would have helped me into that pool!!! How about you? But he had set limits and made it the impossible dream. Thankfully when Jesus told him to get up, take up his mat and walk, the man obeyed and was healed. He didn’t put those same limitations on Jesus and he was rewarded.

Spend some time thinking over your goals, ambitions and dreams. Then ask yourself if there are certain limits that you’ve placed in the way of accomplishing them. God is the way-maker, He will help you break down every barrier that stands in your way, if you will just believe.

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