Ever noticed how much harder it is to get out of bed in the winter than it is in the summer when everything's so bright and warm and inviting? It's in these dark, cold months that we really see just how strong our resolve is to get up early for our quiet times with God. It's easy to be faithful when it doesn't require too much from us but we can so easily compromise when things get a little uncomfortable.
Keeping up with our quiet times is just one example of where we may struggle, but there are all kinds of occasions when the desires of our flesh rub against the fixed boundaries of the faithful life – those invisible lines that separate out the places we can go, the things we can do.
Why does it always seem like our flesh has so much power? To move us away from God; to make us disobey His laws; to make us ignore the voice of truth and forget all our good intentions?
The great thing about boundaries is that they also have power - power to stop us giving in to the desires of our flesh; power to make us obey God; power to move us in the right direction.
We sometimes wish it could be easier but boundaries were never designed to be easy, they were designed to keep us safe. Like that red light at the intersection that stops your car when you're in a rush but also keeps you from crashing into someone else; or the recommended daily allowance guidelines that encourage you to eat more fruit and veg instead of more sugar and calories.
Sometimes the boundaries aren't about stop us from doing something bad but ensuring we do more of what is right. Whichever it is, sometimes it's hard to do what we know in our hearts to be right.
But wisdom of our faith is that what may feel restrictive or challenging is actually the very thing keeping us in shape for eternal life, kind of like what going to the gym and lifting weights does for our body.
Jesus reminds us that the right path is actually the narrow path and that means there are boundaries we cannot overstep and things we will need to trim back. But the good news is that the narrow path doesn't lead to nowhere, it leads to Heaven. That means that whenever we resist what we should resist and embrace what we should embrace, we are going one step closer to Heaven.
And thankfully, the Bible speaks about a greater power at work in us than the power of our flesh – a power that always directs us towards what is good, not away from it.
Paul writes in Philippians 2:13: "For it is God who works in you to will and to act in order to fulfil his good purpose." (NIV)
Acting in line with His will can feel challenging but it is not something we need to try and do by ourselves. God working in us is the power that can lift us into obedience.
So when that boundary feels like a heavy imposition and you feel your resolve to respect it slipping away, change your perspective. Know that it's not there to restrict you or deprive you or just make your life hard for the sake of it. It's there for your greatest good. And the best part is, God is giving you a big foot up. So go ahead, use Him. That's what He's waiting for.
