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changes his mind as a result of our relationship with him. Either
way, we respect his wishes and stay in relationship.
Respecting His Own
In addition to our respecting God’s boundaries and his
respecting ours, he is a good model for how we should respect
our own property.
God is the ultimate responsibility taker. If someone else
causes him pain, he takes responsibility for it. If we continue to
abuse him, he is not masochistic; he will take care of himself.
And for our own sakes, we do not want to suffer the conse-
quences of his boundaries.
The parable of the wedding banquet shows us God taking
responsibility (Matt. 22:1–14). A king who was planning a ban-
quet invited many people to come. When they said no, he
pleaded with them. They continued to say no and went about
their own business. Finally, the king had had enough. Taking
responsibility for the situation, he said to his servants, “The wed-
ding banquet is ready, but those I invited did not deserve to
come. Go to the street corners and invite to the banquet anyone
you find” (vv. 8–9).
Whenever God decides that “enough is enough,” and he has
suffered long enough, he respects his own property, his heart,
enough to do something to make it better. He takes responsibility
for the pain and makes moves to make his life different. He lets go
of the rejecting people and reaches out to some new friends.
God is a good model. When we are hurting, we need to take
responsibility for the hurt and make some appropriate moves to
make things better. This may mean letting go of someone and
finding new friends. It may mean forgiving someone and letting
them off the hook so we can feel better.
A Real Relationship
We started this chapter talking about relationship. Relation-
ship is what the gospel is about. It is a gospel of “reconciliation”
Boundaries