Prayer To Live Joyfully And Safe Within Safe Borders

 Well, on August 9 the border between Canada and United States will reopen to fully vaccinated US adults.  We expect to see some kind of similar announcement from United States in due course.  We have the longest free border between two countries in the world and it’s been quite something to have had it locked down to only essential services since last spring.  So much of our economies are enmeshed with one another. 

We know what the lack of tourists has done for our hospitality industry.  Even a couple of weeks ago when Evelyn and I went to Steveston for a few hours, the decreased number of folks on the boardwalk and in the restaurants was a clear sign of the impact of the closed border.  But we know that the closing of the border was done as protection for all of us against the covid-19 virus and all precautions are being taken to hopefully have this staged reopening not impact our infection rates.

This got me thinking about borders or what we actually call them – boundaries – in our own lives.  Boundaries help us live respectfully and safely in our relationships.  When we define and uphold personal boundaries, they contribute to our peace. We need limits or safe boundaries on our personal behaviour as well as on the time we spend with others. The Bible tells us:

A person without self-control is like a city with broken-down walls. Proverbs 25:28

Blessed is the man who does not walk in the counsel of the wicked or stand in the way of sinners or sit in the seat of mockers.  But his delight is in the law of the LORD, and on his law he meditates day and night. Psalm 1:1-2

As we come into healthy living through a personal relationship with God, through Jesus Christ, we discover satisfying living in a surprising form – life within limits. 

Help us today to say “Yes” to those behaviours that You say bring love, joy and peace, and say “No” to negative ones that actually steal the satisfying life You are offering. Give us grace and strength to wait, as necessary, for healthy alternatives instead of gratifying our momentary desires with destructive and sinful activities, or even good things that are just not wise to pursue at this time.

Live according to your new life in the Holy Spirit.  Then you won't be doing what your sinful nature craves.  The old sinful nature loves to do evil, which is just opposite from what the Holy Spirit wants.  And the Spirit gives us desires that are opposite from what the sinful nature desires.  These two forces are constantly fighting each other, and your choices are never free from this conflict. But when you are directed by the Holy Spirit you are free.  Galatians 5:16-18

And Lord we know we cannot actually set limits on others – what they say or do or believe - but what we can do is set limits on our exposure to people when how they are living negatively impacts us.  Help us to do that today.  We are so easily drawn away from Your purposes in our desire to appeal to or appease others. 

Help us always to live first for You and then let You inform us how we are to live with others and what we ourselves are to say or do.  Help us today to make choices to live appropriately before You and to do whatever it takes to honour You in any given situation. 

Jesus said, “’Love the Lord your God with all your passion and prayer and intelligence.’ This is the most important, the first on any list. But there is a second to set alongside it: ‘Love others as well as you love yourself.’ These two commands are pegs; everything in God’s Law and the Prophets hangs from them.” Matthew 22:37-40

With Your help, God, we choose to live in an atmosphere of safety, blessing, and encouragement.  Amen

It's wonderful that we get to live well today inside safe borders, safe boundaries.

Let's have a great day.