Driven By Love Or Driven By Boundaries

There is a difference between healthy boundaries for our lives and selfish boundaries that merely keep us safe from everything and everyone else. God doesn't tells us to lock ourselves away in our little cocoons and never allow anything bad in. He does tell us to maintain healthy boundaries as we are led by the Holy Spirit, not merely for self preservation, but for the good of everyone involved in relationships.
 
Believers should never continually focus on self for safety ...and protection or they would never speak to anyone who didn't meet with their personal approval, even in the smallest matters. 
 

Narcissists often disapprove and malign those who don't think like they do even over things that are not sin but only differences in thinking.

I am just now, in the past couple of years, learning about boundaries, I never had them before, but I want to be sure that they are guided by the Holy Spirit and never just for my own protection. God is showing me little by little what my boundaries should look like and how they should operate.

Below is an excellent article on this subject!

http://www.biblestudytools.com/blogs/association-of-biblical-counselors/am-i-boundary-driven-or-love-driven.html

The Evil and Wicked Heart

http://www.biblestudytools.com/blogs/association-of-biblical-counselors/5-indicators-of-an-evil-and-wicked-heart.html

Nuggets of Wisdom Rejected

"Living in this world as a believer is like having itching powder all over us."  Nathan Jones

 

For the believer, living in a world that has rejected Christ's principles, while the "Christians" claim to love God at the same time ignoring most of what He has written in His Word, there is a sense of frustration that most just don't get it.

 

When we claim to love Christ but ignore His mandates, we are lying! Loving Christ means to care deeply about His principles and His heart. 

 

Have you ever had a family member who had contempt for you, negated all that you believe, ignored you most of the time, until they needed something from you? 

 

Most of us have experienced this, we are available, we desire to help with nuggets of wisdom and good old fashioned horse sense that would help the needy person avoid pitfalls, but they were contemptuous for the expression of these nuggets rejecting them and you for having shared them. 

 

After rejecting the wisdom, these same people come back to you after they didn't listen, their lives fraught with misery because they refused to listen, while continuing to maintain the same stance they had before, only wanting you to bail them out of the mess they got themselves into? Do they even demand your help maintaining their contemptuous attitude toward you, even becoming angry when you make the choice to say no to them?

 

Believe it or not, this is often the way pretenders act toward God. They refuse to follow His principles, will and desires, and remain contemptuous when God does not answer their prayers or bail them out.

 

Isaiah 1:15 ""So when you spread out your hands in prayer, I will hide My eyes from you; Yes, even though you multiply prayers, I will not listen. Your hands are covered with blood."

 

Isaiah 59:2 "But your iniquities have made a separation between you and your God, And your sins have hidden His face from you so that He does not hear."

 

Proverbs 23:9 "Do not speak in the hearing of a fool, For he will despise the wisdom of your words."

 

Proverbs 28:26 "Whoever trusts in his own mind is a fool, but he who walks in wisdom will be delivered. "

 

Proverbs 9:7-8 "He who corrects a scoffer gets dishonor for himself,

And he who reproves a wicked man gets insults for himself."

8 Do not reprove a scoffer, or he will hate you, Reprove a wise man and he will love you."

 

Have you rejected Christ's principles, flaunted your sin while claiming to walk with Him. If this is true, then you cannot expect God to hear your prayers, nor do you have the right to expect help from Him. God will allow you to wallow in your evil a little longer until your heart is broken over your own sin, ready to repent, confess your sinfulness, while desiring to be changed by Him into a new creation.