Beyond Borders

"But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you; and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth."
Acts 1:8 (NIV)

​​If your faith never costs you a conversation, it might not be costing you enough.

Most of us have drawn borders around our faith. Maybe it’s the comfortable relationships that never stretch us, the safe conversations that never cost us anything, or the faith that fits neatly inside a Sunday morning and doesn't ask much of us the rest of the week. 

Jesus understood our tendency to play it safe, which is exactly why His final words before leaving this earth still stretch us. And they weren't a suggestion. He told His followers they would be His witnesses in Jerusalem first, then Judea, then Samaria, and then to the ends of the earth. 

He was giving them a map that kept expanding, because that’s what obedient faith looks like. He didn't come out of that tomb just to be kept within the borders of their personal comfort zones. And He didn't rise from the dead to be confined within the four walls of the church building either.

There are more than two billion people who follow Jesus today because ordinary men and women kept crossing lines they were afraid to cross. That same call belongs to you.

Think about one border you've built around your faith. It's the conversation you keep avoiding, the neighbor you drive past, the person you've written off. Cross it this week:

Send the text you've been drafting in your head. 

Write the card sitting in your desk drawer. 

Pick up the phone and make the call you've been putting off for months. 

Or just stop before you go to sleep tonight and pray for that one person by name.

You don't have to cross the ocean. Just step outside your comfort zone and watch what God does with it.

Prayer: Lord Jesus, thank You for leaving Heaven’s borders to reach each one of us. Show me the borders I've built that You never intended to be there. Give me the courage to cross them, one step at a time, trusting that You are already on the other side. In Jesus’ Name, Amen.