Limitless

Building One Another - Vol. 11, No. 10
Dear Friend, Do you have health issues that limit your mobility? Or employment or financial matters that constrain your actions? Or family situations that require all of your attention? It is very easy to assume that the constraints in our lives limit what our Lord may do in us and through us. The Apostle Paul makes an interesting comment along this line when his actions are constrained by imprisonment. The incredible missionary journeys that permitted him to tell vast regions about the person of Jesus are over. You might think the work of this great evangelist was done. Then we read, “I want you to know, beloved that what has happened to me has actually helped to spread the gospel, so that it has become known throughout the whole imperial guard and to everyone else that my imprisonment is for Christ.” Philippians 1:12-13* Paul is in prison but the work of God through him is not imprisoned! He says virtually the same thing when writing Timothy, his son in the faith, “That is my gospel, for which I suffer hardship, even to the point of being chained like a criminal.  But the word of God is not chained.”  II Timothy 2:8-9 “I am chained but the word of God is not chained.” What limits us is limitless for our Lord. Whatever the circumstances of your life at this moment, trust that the Lord who loves you has much to accomplish through you – through your words with people, through your prayers, through your acts of compassion and grace. Jabez prayed that God would, “enlarge my border.” I Chronicles 4:10  You, too, are welcome to ask God to work through you in the lives of people beyond what constrains you. What limits you never limits God!
With joy- E. Stanley Ott Copyright 2012 E. Stanley Ott *Scripture from the NRSV
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