God-Given Limits

https://jdsimcoe.medium.com/advent-luxe-2020-5306692a050b

A prayer I wrote using quotes from chapter 3 - Limits - of Paul Tripp's Lead:12 Gospel Principles for Leadership In the Church

Lord, God, our creator,

You have created me with limits.  Help me understand that I cannot do more than I can realistically and healthily do.

God, you don't send us out on our own.  Where you send us, you also go.  I am thankful for this fact.  Help me live in this truth.

As I prayerfully think about the idea of limits and the ministry you have for us, I want the ministry community you have for us to know not to idolize domineering leaders who fail to recognize the limits of their gifts, who disrespect the God-given gifts of fellow leaders, and who have been allowed to think that they are smart, gifted and strong in ways they are not

Lord, I don't want to be surrounded by ministry clones.  Help me surround myself with leaders who have gifts that I do not have and strengths I don't have.  

Lord, help me not fall into the trap of pride and harsh criticism.  I want to develop a leadership community that recognizes God-given gifts and works to establish a ministry culture of respectful appreciation and joyful cooperation.

Lord, I must say no to the passions of my body so that I can do what you have called me to do.

Search my heart, help me recognize, understand, and confess the idols of my heart that interfere with the discipline you have called me to and your grace makes possible.

God, I know there are areas I need to grow in, especially during this time of ministry searching.

Where we are serving, I pray the leaders would see their ongoing need for confrontation, gospel comfort, and love and encouragement to deal with the old self.

Amen! 

"In ministry, it is tempting to try to do more than you can realistically and healthily do."  (72)

"We do not have to fear our limits because God doesn't send us out on our own; where he sends us, he goes to."  (73)

"Every leader needs to rely on the contributions of other leaders who are smart in ways that he isn't."  (74)

"Ministry must always be done in humble, respectful, and submissive community because the gift God has given us come to us with built-in limits."  (74)

"I would be silly and proud to dominate every discussion and make every decision and assign every task."  (74)

"One of the reasons the ministry leadership community is broken is that we have idolized domineering leaders who fail to recognize the limits of their gifts, who disrespect the God-given gifts of fellow leaders, and who have been allowed to think that they are smart, gifted, and strong in ways they are not." (74)

"Pride in one's own giftedness coupled with devaluing the gifts of others is a recipe for leadership disaster."  (75)

"Humble leaders surround themselves not with ministry clones but with leaders who have gifts that they do not and are therefore smart in ways they are not and strong in areas they are weak."  (75)

"Being given a gift tells me about me in that I am not self-sufficient but rather needy and dependent.  It tells me I have no ability to do God's work without God's gifts."  (75)

"My giftedness doesn't make me worthy of human deference, affirmation, or submission, because my gift doesn't point to me but to the one who has given it to me."  (75)

'Because of the public nature of your gifts, you will suffer dangerous adulation and harsh criticism."  (76)

"A leadership community that humbly recognizes the limits of God-given gifts will establish a ministry culture of respectful appreciation, and joyful cooperation."  (77)

"As a leader, you simply cannot ignore the limits placed on you by this plan and maintain spiritual and relational health and a life of long-term ministry effectiveness."  (77)

"When you unwittingly deny God-given limits of time, you assign more ministry work than a leader can do without shrinking the amount of time he can invest in other vital and unavoidable areas of calling and responsibility."  (79)

"So more ministry means the leader spends less than the needed time investing in his marriage, parenting his children, fellowshipping with his church family, and serving his neighbors."  (79)

"We have to resist a "try harder, do more" leadership culture that results in unrealistic expectations, achievement idolatry, and a whole basket of bad fruit."  (79)

"Physical health must be part of the conversation and the shared responsibility of every member of the leadership community."  (81)

"In order to finish the race and not be disqualified, we all must say no to passions of the body so that we can run the ministry or leadership race we have been called to run.  Bringing our body under subjection doesn't begin with diet and exercise, but with searching for and confessing idols of the heart that interfere with the discipline to which we have been called and which grace makes possible.  YOu see, the stewardship of our physical body is not an addition to our gospel ministry; it is a significant part of it."  (81)

"Perhaps many of us are tired all the time not because of the rigorous demands of ministry but because of the lack of rigorous physical exercise in our normal routine.  It is my love for my Savior and his gospel that causes me to eat with discipline.  It is my love for the gospel that makes me get up and go to the gym or get on my road bike morning after morning."  (82)

"No matter how long we've been in ministry leadership, no matter how well trained, no matter theologically mature, we are all still in need of future spiritual development."  (83)

"Every leader needs to be the object of ongoing discipleship, every leader needs at moments to be confronted, every leader needs the comforts of the gospel, every leader needs help to see what he would not see on his own, and every leader needs to be granted the love and encouragement to deal with the artifacts of the old self that are still within him."  (84)