Both day and night belong to you; you made the starlight and the sun. You set the boundaries of the earth, and you made both summer and winter. Psalm 74:16-18

Have you no respect for me? Why don’t you tremble in my presence? I, the LORD, define the ocean’s sandy shoreline as an everlasting boundary that the waters cannot cross. The waves may toss and roar, but they cannot cross the boundaries I set. Jeremiah 5:22

He created the horizon when he separated the waters; he set the boundary between day and night. Job 26:10

Day and night.

Water and land.

Heaven and earth.

The living and the dead.

God is a boundary setter.

In the Parable of the Rich Man and Lazarus, found in Luke 16, Jesus describes the boundary of those at the heavenly banquet, and those in outer darkness.

And besides, there is a great chasm separating us. No one can cross over to you from here, and no one can cross over to us from there. Luke 16:26   

If you haven’t read the entire Parable already, I highly suggest you do. The idea of suffering for all eternity isn’t pleasant. No one wants that, not even God. It’s why Jesus did what he did on that cross so many years ago.

For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish but have eternal life. John 3:16  

God wants you to be saved.

As surely as I live, says the Sovereign LORD, I take no pleasure in the death of wicked people. I only want them to turn from their wicked ways so they can live. Turn! Turn from your wickedness, O people of Israel! Why should you die? Ezekiel 33:11   

To identify wickedness, it’s wise to learn about where it began: The fall of Satan.

And this simplifies what really caused him to fall:

For you said to yourself, ‘I will ascend to heaven and set my throne above God’s stars. I will preside on the mountain of the gods far away in the north. I will climb to the highest heavens and be like Most High.’ Isaiah 14:13-14

There’s more to it. Ezekiel 28 describes the dishonest trade and other haughty acts of the evil one. BUT it was pride; not just only pride, but pride so lofty it saw itself as above God.

That gives a real easy model of what NOT to follow.

Salvation takes humility.

He has shown you, O mortal, what is good. And what does the LORD require of you? To act justly and to love mercy and to walk humbly with your God. Micah 6:8

Again, salvation takes humility. Not self-degradation, no. Kind David was inspired by God, and very clear in describing how incredible we all are:

For you created my innermost being; you knit me together in my mother’s womb. I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made; your works are wonderful, I know that full well. Psalm 139:13-14

It takes humility to realize that we are not better than our Creator. In that place of humility, we can experience awe and gratitude. For not only are we fearfully and wonderfully made, but the Creator, the one who merely spoke light and life into existence; the One who made all we know about and see and everything we cannot see nor understand, loves us so much, he wants to be found by us.

He even wants to be our friend.

For the LORD is God, and he created the heavens and earth and put everything in place. He made the world to be lived in, not to be a place of empty chaos. “I am the LORD,” he says, “and there is no other. I publicly proclaim bold promises. I do not whisper obscurities in some dark corner. I would not have told the people of Israel to seek me if I could not be found. Isaiah 45:18-19

Don’t envy violent people or copy their ways. Such wicked people are detestable to the LORD, but he offers his friendship to the godly. Proverbs 3:31-32

What are the wicked spoken of in this Proverb? Those who think of themselves as on par or higher than their Creator…

So many people are following the devil without even realizing it. They’d put silly ideas and created things like ‘luck’ and ‘the universe’ as being what controls their lives instead of the one who MADE them. Some are even worse, seeing themselves as big enough to judge their Creator.

When the first commandment is so simple.

Jesus replied, “Love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. Matthew 22:37

You can’t exactly do that if you don’t see God as big enough to help you, or to change your life, or to save you. That perspective is satanic. And you don’t want anything to do with that.

Revelation chapter 20:10 speaks very clear on what will happen to him:

Then the devil, who had deceived them, was thrown into the fiery lake of burning sulfur, joining the beast and the false prophet. There they will be tormented day and night forever and ever.

And that is the chasm which Jesus spoke of in Luke 16:26, the boundary of heaven and hell. And if God’s boundary in heaven cannot be crossed, how much more so the boundaries here!

The LORD will be our Mighty One. He will be like a wide river of protection that no enemy can cross, that no enemy can sail upon. For the LORD is our judge, our lawgiver, and our king. He will care for us and save us. Isaiah 33:21-22 NLT

Don’t be afraid to ask God to strengthen your boundaries. After all, He made them!

Boundaries protect us from chaos.

Boundaries keep us alive!

Another faucet of this word is the need to honor the boundaries in our lives. Modern society seethes with endless temptations to break these boundaries; either our own, or the boundaries that belong to someone else.

Husband and wife.

Parent and child.

National Sovereignty.

Property.

Privacy.

Breaking these boundaries is not okay.

Yet even if boundaries have been broken in your life, God is bigger. He can repair, restore, and reinforce EVERY boundary that’s been broken.

It’s vital to ask God to repair the boundaries that have been wrecked. Only He can heal those cracks and bruises and make us whole again.

You only need to ask. 

God is there, rooting for you to seek him, to fellowship with him, daily. Not in some overly chilled, large building somewhere, in a place where someone else does all the talking for you. I’m not saying church is bad, I’m just saying it’s not enough.

You are missing out on so much with God, if all you do is expect another human to mediate your relationship with Him for you. That’s not necessary. Jesus already did that, it’s why today is called Good Friday!

Jesus was your mediator to God’s holiness. You only need to ask him into your heart and have the humility to love and honor God above all else.

It really is that simple.

Love for others and obeying the other commandments will come easily when you want to please God.

He’s longing for you to love him. He created you to be his friend.

I hope you choose Him.

In looking back into Isaiah 45, the end result we all must face was made very clear:

Let all the world look to me for salvation! For I am God; there is no other. I have sworn by my own name; I have spoken the truth, and I will never go back on my word: every knee will bend to me, and every tongue will confess allegiance to me.” The people will declare, “The LORD is the source of all my righteousness and strength.” And all who were angry with him will come to him and be ashamed. Isaiah 45:22-24

If you’re angry with God, understand that you didn’t create yourself. Please, have the humility to turn to him while there’s still time. Just as true as the fact that we did not creator ourselves, is the hard reality that none of us know when our end will come.

When you gain the humility to understand that God is above all others, you gain so much.

So accept Him into your hearts and let the Boundary Setter designate your place at His banqueting table.

Kimberly Humphreys