My dad and brother were interviewing my Papa, Muncia Walls, on their Kingdom Link podcast, and this quote of his went straight to my heart. They had asked him about some of the pitfalls young ministers need to watch out for. One of his answers was jealousy, and then he quickly followed up with be faithful in your limitations. Basically, be yourself. Don’t worry about others. Do what God has called you to do.
I was listening to the podcast while mowing our grass, and kept repeating the phrase in my head until I finally just turned the lawn mower off and jotted it down in my notes app.
And it has been reverberating in my head since then.
This phrase goes against everything this world promotes. According to culture, there are no limits to which we need to be faithful. Marriage can be signed away with a pen. Life can be ended in a doctor’s office before it even has a chance to begin. There are no limits to gender or to desire. No boundaries. No drawn lines. Be whatever you want, want whatever and whomever you want. All limits have been erased, and this new “freedom” is promoted to be what will allow us to accomplish anything.
Who wants to be limited? Who wants to be restrained? Who wants to be told, this is not for you?!
This message can even slip through into the hearts of believers. We sing, Through You, I can do anything, I can do all things, ‘cause it’s You Who gives me strength. Nothing is impossible. I love that song – it’s biblical! Philippians 4:13 says it plainly, “I can do all things through Christ which strengtheneth me.”
So that sounds an awful lot like there are no limitations placed on us, right?
Not exactly.
The verses leading up to verse 13 say, “…I have learned, in whatsoever state I am, there with to be content. I know both how to be abased, and I know how to abound; every where and in all things I am instructed both to be full and to be hungry, both to abound and to suffer need. I can do all things through Christ which strengtheneth me.”
If there were no limitations on Paul, if he could do all things, why would he suffer need? Why would he be hungry? If all things were possible, why would he not choose to abound all the time?
I don’t think Paul is saying that he could literally do anything. I think that he is saying that he can be hungry or he could be full, he could have plenty or he could lack, he could be happy or he could be dejected, but he could do it all through Christ. Whatever season, whatever situation, under whatever unmovable limitations, he could conquer it all. He could live in victory.
I firmly, unequivocally, one thousand percent believe that God can do anything. And He could choose to use me to do anything. But He doesn’t. Why would He?
If I could do anything, if I had no limitations, why would He need anyone else? I could do it all. And furthermore, why would I need Him?
He could have chosen to loosen Moses’ tongue and clear up his speech, but He didn’t. He allowed that limitation to rest on him. And He chose to use Aaron as His voice instead.
How frustrating it must have been for Moses to see God turn his staff into a snake, water to blood, day into night, but keep his tongue bound. Limited Moses served an unlimited God. Limited Moses was used to save an entire nation of people. Limited Moses changed the world.
God could have chosen to remove Paul’s thorn in his flesh, but He didn’t. He allowed that hindrance, annoyance, and distraction to remain. And Paul learned humility, steadfastness, and the power of God’s grace and strength.
How frustrating it must have been to watch the Savior of the world wash the dirt off your feet but leave the thorn in your side. How agonizing it must have been to see signs and wonders and miracles, and then limp home in pain. Limited Paul served an unlimited God. Limited Paul wrote half of the New Testament and brought the gospel to an untold amount of people. Limited Paul changed the world.
Be faithful in your limitations.
While God will give us the strength to live through, conquer, and triumph in all things, He will not give us the ability to do all things.
His strength is made perfect in our weakness. His glory shines through in our areas of lack. So why try to cover them up and become something we’re not?
I may never be able to sing like Kim Walker. I may never be able to write a Bible study like Priscilla Shirer. I may never be able to parent the way Kristen Atkins does, or quietly move mountains the way Sis. Pat Wilson does, or be a pastor’s wife the way my mom does. But the good news is that I’m not supposed to.
I have been called to be me. Limited Whitney. He has called me to come up higher closer to Him, dig down deeper into the Word, shed the trappings of this world, and press toward the mark of becoming ever better … but He has never called me to be someone else.
He knows my limitations well. He’s eager to let His glory shine through them. My only job is to be faithful in them. To stay on my own path, not glancing jealously at someone else’s. To continually give my weaknesses to Him to chip away at and mold and form into a new creation.
So today, if you’re reading this, take a breath. Unclench your jaw. Soften and lower your shoulders. Release that tension. Shed that pressure. No one was called to do it all. No one was asked to be the best at everything. And no one is called for the mission you were specifically equipped for, except you.
Be faithful in your limitations. God will take care of the rest.
“The war is over, turn around. Lay your weapons on the ground. The smoke is fading before the light. The dead are coming back to life.
He has made a way for us, born for glory out of dust, children held within the arms of peace. He has made a way for all, mercy waits where sinners fall. He is our victory.
The war is over, His love has come to call us daughters and sons. No longer orphans without a home. No, we have found where we belong.
It is finished, it is done. The blood of Jesus, it overcomes. It is finished, He has won. Yeah, He has won.”
– The War is Over – Bethel Music
This. Song.
I am reminded of a season where I battled fear and oppression almost ten years ago. It was my lowest point. I had to battle for every step. My joy was completely gone and replaced with unexplainable fear. A month into my battle, I went to a prayer meeting at our church. In glorious rescue, God came down and delivered me from the chaos. It was one of the most beautiful moments of my life. He spoke to me. To me!? And He freed me from that oppression.
But a few weeks later I fell back into my old patterns. That same fear and oppression came creeping back. One night, in desperation, my husband and I called my Dad (who is also our pastor) to come over. I was so confused. I thought I had been freed?
He prayed with us and then said something that at the time felt so confusing. He told me that I had been delivered. I had been freed. But I had slipped into my old patterns of behavior and thought processes, and now it was time for me to change. To act differently. To completely let go of the past and move forward in freedom.
Oh, man. That was NOT what I wanted to hear. I didn’t want it to be my fault. Ha!
But now I get it. The war was over, yet I was still firmly planted in the battlefield. I was cowering and ducking from imagined attacks. I was swinging at a defeated enemy. I can’t help but think of Eleazar who fought the Philistines until the blood congealed and glued his hand to his sword. (2 Samuel 23:10) Super gross. But that was me. I had fought until I couldn’t let go of my sword. I didn’t even notice the sword was still in my hand, it had become such a part of me.
I lived in defense instead of offense. I used the same coping mechanisms in victory as I had resorted to in war.
But the war was over. He had won.
It can be scary to go forward in victory. When you go through a season of battle, you have to find ways to cope and survive. But the way you survive in war doesn’t translate well to life in victory. You have to lower your defenses, throw your weapons down, and make that first victorious step in faith.
The battle is the Lord’s to win, but victorious life is ours to live.
Some seasons require battle. They require picking up the sword and the shield and standing our ground. But some seasons require throwing our weapons down. Stepping out in victory. Shedding off our armor. Running free and unencumbered in His glorious light.
Tomorrow my younger daughter turns one, and this milestone feels like it has silently jumped up out of nowhere. Somehow, someway, amidst all of the nose wiping and snack preparing and story reading and child raising, my infant turned into a baby turned into a whirlwind of a one-year-old.
I can’t help but think back to this day last year. The last day we were a family of three. Daddy, Mommy, and two-year-old Ruby. I spent the evening cleaning the house and trying to calm my bundle of nerves. Everyone told me that a planned c-section would be better than my first emergency c-section, but I didn’t believe them. This time I knew what to expect. I knew the vulnerability waiting me on that bed. The cold, the helplessness, the arms strapped down and the numb body. A doctor rummaging around my insides, tugging and pulling.
My first c-section came after 36 hours of labor. The baby that everyone was worried would be born too soon was content to stay inside. I worked so hard to get her to progress, but at the crucial moment of her birth I was powerless. Helpless. Overcome with disappointment and the feeling that I hadn’t become a mother, instead the doctor had just removed a baby. No effort from me required.
My first moment of motherhood was wrapped up in disappointment and the conviction that I had done it wrong. That I was not enough.
Mothering. You’re doing it wrong.
Have you ever felt that? I mean, if you haven’t are you even on the internet? One quick peek at my Facebook feed, and I learn about five ways that I’m failing my children. To vaccinate or not vaccinate. Sleep train or not sleep train. Home school or public school or private school or unschooled.
Birth is just the first of many steps that a mother can plan out to the second, and then watch as everything is turned on a dime and the tightly-held plans are thrown out the door.
With Ruby, I lived in fear of doing it wrong. I did everything by the book. And I knew how to do everything by the book because I read all of the books. Every single one.
I never expected myself to be perfect, but I sure did try awfully hard.
Mothering. You’re doing it wrong.
Before Selah was born, I knew I would need an extra grace. I felt it in my bones. Raising her is like raising wildfire – she is fierce and powerful and exhilarating and leaves me humbled. I have thrown out the books with her and pray daily for God to show me how to be a good mother.
I didn’t know how desperately I needed her.
Ruby gave me the gift of becoming a mother. Selah gave me the courage to be one.
Anyone can write a convincing Facebook post about the right way to get a baby to sleep through the night, but only a mother can hold her child and know whether she needs comfort or solitude. Anyone can tell you how to discipline a child, but only a mother can look into her child’s eyes and know whether she needs a hug or a time out. Anyone can tell you how to raise your child, but only you know how to mother her.
Selah has taught me that I will do it wrong. I will make mistakes. I will lack. But I can never fail her as a mother.
My daughters do not need my perfection. They will see the standard that I hold myself to and try to emulate it some day. If they see a mother striving for perfection and obsessed with the notion of failure, how will they learn to surpass me? How is that drawing them to God?
Mothering has taught me that I do not have all the answers, and I most likely never will. This isn’t a black and white, yes or no kind of thing. Motherhood is shades of gray and doing your best and trying again tomorrow. I refuse to live in the fear of not being enough for my daughters because I KNOW I am not enough. I have never been and I never will be. They were formed with a God-sized void, just like me. They will always need more than what this world has to offer. What I have to offer. My only role is to lovingly raise them as best I can while continually pointing them to the One Who does no wrong. Who is more than enough.
So when my plans go astray – when motherhood doesn’t look like I had hoped – when I am met with insecurity and fear and failure, I trust in this. He set the world in motion. He formed it all with His hands. And He chose to form my two little wildfire miracles inside of me. In my womb, in my heart, in my dreams. No one else.
The Creator of galaxies saw your children and knew that they needed you. With Him on our side, fear and insecurity have no choice but to leave.
Delight yourself also in the Lord: and He shall give thee the desires of thine heart. Commit thy way unto the Lord; trust also in Him; and He shall bring it to pass. (Psalm 37:4-5)
What an exciting, encouraging, hope-filled promise found in the Word of God! It has always been one of my favorites. Yet, I’ve got to to be honest with you all for a bit. For the majority of my life, I have had a pretty narrow, even selfish, view of this verse. I used to take it simply as an if/then verse. If I delighted in the Lord, then He would give me what I wanted.
I can’t tell you how many times I prayed this verse over my life as a teenager and young adult. Lord, I’m delighting in You! So, please let me get accepted into the college I want. Lord, I’ve given my life to You! You know the desires of my heart, so please give me a husband. And a family. And a fulfilling career. And, and, and …. The prayers went on and on.
But I have come to find that this verse is so much more than that. I was speaking it over my life in a way that I don’t believe God intended.
The word give here is a pretty amazing verb in the original Hebrew. It not only means to give. It means to put or to set. It means to appoint, assign, ascribe, and designate.
This verse isn’t saying that God will grant us our deepest desires and wishes like some mythical genie if we just prove ourselves worthy. I believe this verse is saying that if we make Him our number one priority, He will reform, reshape, and mold our deepest desires into the ones that He has destined for us.
How do we delight ourselves in the Lord? We crown Him the King of our hearts, not our own longings or the temptations of this world. We make Him our biggest priority in our schedule, not our jobs or hobbies. We trust in Him for every need, not our own understanding or bank accounts. We turn to Him to fulfill and validate us, not our friends and family or social media followers.
We make Him first in everything, and then He forms the desires of our hearts. He will reshape our hearts into wanting what He has designed for us. He will define our desires, appoint our ambitions, and create our cravings. He will make us want what He wants. He will give us His heart.
This same word give is also used in Jeremiah 1:5. Before I formed thee in the belly I knew thee; and before thou camest forth out of the womb I sanctified thee, and I ordained thee a prophet unto the nations.
God had ordained Jeremiah to be a prophet. He set him, ascribed him, and positioned him as His prophet. Before we were even formed, God ordained a role and ascribed a calling for each of us that only we could fulfill.
It can be so tempting to hold on to our deepest dreams with clenched fists. That feels like the safe choice. It can be so frightening to hand them over to God and say not mine, but Thy will be done. Yet, that is the key to unlocking His purpose for us.
The One Who planned where each star in every galaxy was going to shine is the One Who lovingly thought of us before we were born and planned what magnificent role we were going to play in His Kingdom. The One Who tells the ocean how far to flow onto the sand is the One Who longs to tell us His dreams and purpose and calling for us.
As we delight in the Lord and allow Him to work in our hearts, He will place desires in us that will guide us to His will for our lives. We won’t want what this world has to offer. We will want Him.
And then the Word says Commit thy way unto the Lord; trust also in Him; and He shall bring it to pass. (Psalm 37:5)
Give it all to Him. Trust also in Him. The word for trust here means to have confidence, to be bold, to be secure, to feel safe, and to be careless. I adore that last part! We can be so secure in His safekeeping over us that we have no care in the world. Nothing else matters but Him.
When we reach the point where we want only what God wants for our lives, nothing can get in our way. Worldly aspirations and goals pale in comparison to the mind-blowing plans and dreams that God has created for us. His desires for us will always be one hundred percent more fulfilling than any we could dream for ourselves.
