Abundant Life Despite Our Limitations

Limitations are as natural as human error. 

Or so we are led to believe. 

As children, we couldn't even fully grasp our limitations. Our parents would watch us experience those limitations, then overcome them. Then, they would watch us face new ones. Limitations such as keeping our head steady and grabbing food, then progressing to facing limitations such as standing, walking, and talking. Every day we would overcome setbacks, and then experience new ones. Over and over.

Sure, effort applied helps us all overcome. At least with most circumstances. There’s wonderful value in applying effort over and over again. And yet, there’s been plenty of times that we’ve tried and still have yet to overcome. Frustrating and yet, these are limitations. 

Abundant life is a wonderful idea but often too full to grasp. Just because our imagination and understanding and belief is limited, doesn't mean God won't do abundantly more good than we can ever ask for. Just because we think this is as good as it gets, doesn’t mean this is as good as God can do. We are the ones with the limitations.

One of the saddest verses in all of Scripture is when Jesus leaves Nazareth, "unable" to do any miracles because of their unbelief. From time to time I find myself wondering if I would’ve been found in Nazareth, limited by my unbelief. Let’s not do the same thing in our prayers. Let’s not limit what God can do because we don’t believe enough to ask or because we don’t know Him well enough to trust how much He desires to do for us. God can do more than we know. He wants to do more than we can comprehend.

Jesus told us that He came to give us life in abundance. Life in abundance is a phrase that hits our ears and sounds so good until life happens and things get hard, and we realize how limited we are. What if we asked God to help us believe the words of Jesus today? To take Him at His word is akin to us passionately crying, Jesus, Jesus, how we trust Him!

We can have a healthy approach to treating Jesus with the sincerity and simplicity with which a child treats her father. The healthy sincerity we had as kids trying to overcome our limitations as our parents watched on. The life that Jesus gives is healthy and complete. Abundant. 

With Jesus, we will have life in abundance even with our limitations.