Today’s devotion is based on Sunday’s Message: Grace Relents (LISTEN HERE).
Are boundaries good?
Honestly, sometimes they can be frustrating. Ask the teenager who has a curfew at midnight whose friends can stay out as late as they want. Ask the driver on the highway in the middle of the night with few cars around wondering why they have to drive at 55 mph. Ask the child who is limited to two snacks when it seems like there is enough for every child to have 10.
Some boundaries can be challenging to understand and thus abide by.
But boundaries provide safety.
Ask the motorist who had a severe blow out on a bridge and lost control and hit the barrier that prevented them from plummeting into the waters below. Ask the teenager whose friends who were arrested for vandalism done in the early morning hours when he left to be home by midnight. Ask the customer at Home Depot who had to wait behind a safety strap as a worker was moving material…only to see a pallet of blocks come crashing down where they would have been shopping.
Boundaries provide safety.
While we may balk at some boundaries, the motivation in most cases is a heart that loves the person enough to keep them from unnecessarily harming themselves or causing harm to others. Enforcing boundaries is done for two reasons. First, it reinforces the importance of the boundary (if it didn’t matter, it wouldn’t be enforced.) and second, it provides a consequence that will deter or prevent the person from breaking the boundary and suffering perhaps worse than the consequence.
God sets up boundaries that he summarized in the 10 Commandments. These ten guide individuals in their relationship to God and to others. They protect our hearts, our relationships, our material goods and much more. There are also consequences if they are broken. Ultimately, breaking the boundaries of God sets up the justice of God to separate us from God forever.
But God doesn’t want this.
So he, in his love, calls us to repentance. He points out sin in our lives, which can hurt and we don’t like, but he does it because he wants the best for us. The Apostle Paul knew this as he was in a position to be called to repentance and also call others to repentance. But the goal of bringing repentance was the salvation of souls.
2 Corinthians 7:8 Even if I caused you sorrow by my letter, I do not regret it. Though I did regret it—I see that my letter hurt you, but only for a little while— 9 yet now I am happy, not because you were made sorry, but because your sorrow led you to repentance. For you became sorrowful as God intended and so were not harmed in any way by us. 10 Godly sorrow brings repentance that leads to salvation and leaves no regret, but worldly sorrow brings death.
Sorrow is not, “I’m sorry I got caught,” but rather sorrow that realizes I have broken the loving boundary of God and realize the spiritual danger I am in. Godly sorrow leads to repentance, a change of mind and heart to what I was doing back to the mind and heart of God. The result? Salvation and no regret.
And that is exactly what our loving God wants for us and its why in his grace he calls us to repentance.
Apply: What area of life do you hear God’s call to repentance? How does it make you feel? What blessing is God trying to have you realize?
Prayer: Lord, thank you for the boundaries you place in my life to bring blessing to my life. Thank you for pointing out sin in my life and calling me to repentance so I might have no regret and experience your salvation. AMEN.