When You Argue For Your Limitations, You Get To Keep Them
“Lord, just give me a clear sign that you are real. Appear to me like you have appeared to others and my faith will never waiver.”
This thought often sneaks into my mind. I think that if I could just experience something like Peter, James and John experienced on the mountain then my faith would be all set. I could very easily go out and proclaim the Gospel and all would be good in the world.
Thomas had the same mindset after the Resurrection. He thought that if he could just see Jesus for himself and touch Him with his own hands then he would believe. Jesus told him, “Blessed are those who have not seen, yet believe.”
Christians for centuries have been yearning for some great sign to tell them once and for all that Jesus is Lord and that everything in Scripture is true. We tell ourselves that if Jesus revealed Himself to us like he did to the apostles it would be so much easier to believe in Him.
I’m here to tell you that this is all a lie.
We like to tell ourselves all kinds of stories and make all kinds of excuses as to why we are not good at something. Our excuses weigh us down and end up destroying any chance we ever had at success. “Well if I lived in that city” or “if I had more money” or “if I had a job that was more flexible.” These are all things that we make up to let ourselves off the hook for being mediocre. Gary Keller wrote in his book The One Thing “when you argue for your limitations, you get to keep them.”
When you argue for your limitations, you get to keep them and your faith and relationship with Christ are no exception. If you continue to make excuses as to why your faith is not strong, you will get to keep a weak faith. A common definition of faith is, “belief that is not based on proof,” yet we keep saying that if we could only get some proof, then we would have faith. We want our faith to be based on proof and, in reality, that’s impossible. Faith based on proof is not faith at all.
Anything that you truly want to be successful at requires you to set aside your limitations and stop arguing for them. To have a strong faith in Jesus, you need to stop making the argument that not enough has been revealed to you for you to truly believe. That is simply making an excuse so that you can feel better about a mediocre relationship with Jesus. We all tell ourselves this lie in one way or another and we all fall short of the relationship that Jesus wants to have with us.
We need to stop arguing for our limitations. The more we argue for them, the more we get to keep them. The more excuses I make as to why my faith is weak, the weaker my faith is. The more I blame circumstances for not having an intimate relationship with Jesus, the farther from Him I will be. Let’s stop arguing for our limitations and pursue a faith without excuses. Remember, when you argue for your limitations, you get to keep them.
