“Mom, can I buy a Case IH 9230 combine with 24 row corn head and 40 foot bean head?”
He now has my complete attention. Did I hear that correctly? Turning around, I look him in the eye. Yep, he’s serious. My eleven year old explains how his farming simulator app has the combine available for $2.99. WHEW!! How can he farm his fields without a combine!? He has to have it. He pleads and begs to use the rest of his birthday iTunes gift card. I pause. He understands. It’s not just a button to push and POOF it magically appears. He understands it takes money to buy those items on an app. My nodding grin gives him the ok.
The ease of buying off the computer screen scares me. I set limits to my children to establish discipline in their own lives. I know he could have easily pressed the button to buy the combine before asking but he was obedient. Staying in his limits, he shows me responsibility.
What is my limit and how is it established? I know I have limits. I use self-control. Doesn’t everyone? Makes you think. Computers, phones, tablets, and any device is a temptation. Does your computer or device make others content or less content? Does it make you content? Are you content if those closest to you are not content? We have to know our limits before going to buy anything. As Pastor Ray confirmed on Sunday, “You need financial margins.” Establish a limit and obey just like my child did with the limit I established for him. But re-read the paragraph. If I didn’t say anything about buying or financial margins, I could be talking about limits and self-control on anything not just buying something.
As an adult, we set our own limits. Or do we? The limits we set are our own. How we define the limits are established based on something else. It could be the way we were raised, a defining moment or experience, the environment in which we live, influential people in our lives, or the Word of God. Job says,
Job 15:8 “Have you heard the counsel of God? Do you limit wisdom to yourself?” NKJV
Read Joshua 1:7-9 NKJV
7 Only be strong and very courageous, that you may observe to do according to all the law which Moses My servant commanded you; do not turn from it to the right hand or to the left, that you may prosper wherever you go. 8 This Book of the Law shall not depart from your mouth, but you shall meditate in it day and night, that you may observe to do according to all that is written in it. For then you will make your way prosperous, and then you will have good success. 9 Have I not commanded you? Be strong and of good courage; do not be afraid, nor be dismayed, for the Lord your God is with you wherever you go.”
Have I heard the counsel of God?
If I define my limits using God’s Word, then I think the answer to that question is yes. The Holy Spirit helps with limits. The word LAW in Joshua’s verse is the Hebrew word towrah meaning “LAW, DIRECTION, INSTRUCTION” (Strong’s). God gives instruction and direction to those who ask, and the Holy Spirit is willing. All I need to do is ask and receive. Walking in the Spirit produces fruit. In David Guzik’s commentary on Galations 5:22-23, he says, “The fruit of the Spirit can always conquer the works of the flesh.” All I need to do is allow the Holy Spirit to give the wisdom and counsel I need. Pray about it.
Limits are established in the Word of God.
~Shelley Rindfuss
