“I have learned that everything has limits” (Psalm 119:96a TEV).

If you want to build margin in your life so that you can do the work God meant for you to do, you have to remember that you are only human. You are not a god. You are not invincible. You are just a human being. You have limits!

Psalm 119:96 says, “I have learned that everything has limits”(TEV).

God is the author of your limitations. He put them there for your good. He did it because he loves you. So rather than fighting your limits, you need to accept your limits.

Unfortunately, as human beings we’re not very adept at recognizing our limits. We constantly overestimate our abilities and underestimate the problems and how much time it will take to do something. On top of that, we live in a culture that constantly tells us, “You can do it all! You can have it all! You can be whatever you want!” But it’s not true. You can be all that God wants you to be, but you cannot be whatever you want to be. There are limits in your life.

In the first place, you have physical limits. You can’t go six months without food, no matter how much you talk yourself into it. There are limits to positive thinking.

You also have emotional limits. These are much harder for us to judge in our own lives. How many people can you carry emotionally? How many problems of other people can you handle? Not as many as you probably think.

You have mental limits. The problem is, the media is constantly pumping new information into our minds through radio, TV, and the internet. As a result, most Americans today are mentally on tilt. They can’t handle any more.

And of course you have time limits. No matter how many time management seminars you go to, you’re never going to have more than 24 hours in a day. And you have to sleep part of that time.

You’re thinking, “It would really be nice if God would warn me when I’m reaching my limit.”

God has given you a warning light! It’s called pain. It’s called fatigue. It’s called stress. It’s called loss of joy. It’s called irritability. When you feel any of these things, you’re on overload. You have exceeded some kind of limit in your life.

The starting point for building margin is to realize you need margin because you have limits. You cannot just keep cramming your life full of things that are not important and do not help you accomplish your purpose.

Ask God to give you the wisdom to recognize your limits and then build margin into your life so that you are not living an overloaded life.

PLAY today’s audio teaching from Pastor Rick >>

Talk It Over
​

• Why do you think God gave us limits? Why doesn’t he want you to do it all?
• How can you know what you should cut out or stop doing so that you have more margin in your life?
• What limits do you already know you have? How did you discover them?

​Article source: http://pastorrick.com/

“It is a trap to dedicate something rashly and only later to consider one’s vows” (Proverbs 20:25 NIV).

When you learn to pause and pray before making a decision, you are helping to slow your life down to a more manageable level.

Proverbs 20:25 says, “It is a trap to dedicate something rashly and only later to consider one’s vows” (NIV).
What is God saying? Ponder before promising. Deliberate before deciding. Muse before you choose. Reflect before you select. Consider your commitments prayerfully and carefully before you decide. Pause and pray before deciding. That will slow your life down.

One thing I’ve had to learn the hard way is you can’t just keep adding things to your schedule without eliminating some. Every time you add a new activity to your schedule, you need to take something off.

One of my mentors, Peter Drucker, used to say to me, “Don’t tell me what new thing you’re doing. Tell me what you’ve stopped doing.” The mark of leadership is knowing what to stop and what to cut out. If you’re burning the candle at both ends, you’re not as bright as you think you are. You’re going to burn out!

Do you have a hard time cutting out activities from your schedule? When you’re faced with an opportunity, you need to do three things:

1. Ask, “Is it worth it?” Is it worth your time, energy, effort, reputation, or money?
2. Ask, “What am I going to give up?” Consider the cost.
3. Learn to say “no.” It’s the greatest time saver in life!

We need to learn to take these three steps and take time to pause and pray before adding more to our already full schedules.

PLAY today’s audio teaching from Pastor Rick >>

Talk It Over
​Why is it so difficult for us to say “no” to new opportunities?

• How can you help your kids learn to prayerfully reflect and consider before adding to their schedules?
• What new things have you added to your schedule in the last month? What things can you remove from your schedule to create margin in your life?

​Article source: http://pastorrick.com/

“It is better to be satisfied with what you have than to be always wanting something else” (Ecclesiastes 6:9b GNT).

Instead of being regretful, we need to be grateful. Instead of complaining, we need to remember that everything is a gift from God.

The Bible says in 1 Corinthians 4:7-8, “Isn’t everything you have and everything you are sheer gifts from God? So what’s the point of all this comparing and competing? You already have all you need” (MSG).
Envy always asks, “Why them?” “Why does he have better health?” “Why does she have a job and a husband, and I have neither?”

Gratitude says, “Why me?” “Why do I get to drink clean water when so much of the world doesn’t?” “Why am I not under persecution? Why am I not thrown into prison for my faith?”

Envy is based on the myth that you must have more in order to be happier. It’s just not true. Happiness is a choice. If you’re not happy now, you’re not going to be happy with more. I could give many testimonies of people who have a lot more than you, and it doesn’t make them happier. You are as happy as you choose to be.

Ecclesiastes 6:9 says, “It is better to be satisfied with what you have than to be always wanting something else” (GNT). This is called contentment. All of us need to learn contentment.

Why? Because by nature you are not a contented person. None of us are! It is not natural to be contented. It is mature to be contented. Babies are discontented. Unless everything is going their way, they’re not satisfied. Maturity is learning to be content when things are not going your way. It’s better to be satisfied with what you have than to always want something more.

Let me clarify: Envy is not desire. Desire is good. Envy is not ambition. Ambition is good. You ought to be ambitious and work for good things in your life. Envy is not a dream. You ought to have a dream in your life. Envy is not setting goals. Dreams, ambitions, goals, and desires are all things that God puts in you.

Envy is resenting other people who have something already and thinking that you can’t be happy until you get it, too. Both of those are lies. Instead, learn to be grateful for who you are and what you have. Everything you have is a gift from God!

PLAY today’s audio teaching from Pastor Rick >>
​
Talk It Over

• What is something you can do today to practice gratitude?
• When you’re tempted to resent someone because of what that person has or is, how can you turn it into gratitude? What should you say to that person?
• Why do you think God makes happiness a choice?

​Article source: http://pastorrick.com/