Notes to accompany "Discipleship - Emotional Health , Week 5 "

Knowing your limits

Jesus had human limits

At the time of His baptism He was affirmed by the Father.  Mark 1: 11  So began a brief 3 year ministry.

Jesus had to learn obedience.  This included setting limits and watching needs that remained unmet.

Jesus didn’t heal every sick and demonised person John 5

Yet He prayed at the end of His life.   John 17: 4

We have not sought God enough to know His will John 6: 38

We have to learn to know who we are in Christ, the gifts He has given us, and the work we are called to do.

Learning to discern your limitations.

• Look at your personalityLook at your season of life   Ecclesiastes 3: 1-8
• Look at your life situation
• Look at your emotional, physical and intellectual capacities
• Look at your negative emotion
• Look at the scars from your past

Henri Nouwen: “We have to hold our own cup.  We have to dare to say ‘This is my life, the life that is given to me, and it is this life that I have to live as well as I can.  Many people can help me live my life but, after all is said and done, I have to make my own choices about how to live.”

God also works through our limitations.

Abraham & Sarah, Elijah & Jeremiah, Moses, Timothy.

So there’s a balance that’s needed.

None of the above is a call to laziness. We must all give an account of our discipleship to God, and also know that if God calls us to a task that seems too big for us then He will enable.

The crucial thing is to develop our relationship with God so that we know Him and know His plan for our lives, which includes what is not His plan.

King David.   Psalm 115: 3