Stand Firm part 3
I guess it comes down to one of my mottos: "When you don't know what to do... do what you know--love!" Because no matter what's going on, you can always do that. No matter where you are or what you're going through... you can love people. Because love is not about getting. Because love is giving. We have the love we need. Jesus gave it to us when He was lifted up from the earth on the cross and drew us all into Himself. And when I say He "gave it to us," what I really mean is that God (Jesus) has always and will always love us. Forever. No matter what. What Jesus gave to us was the Holy Spirit. The Spirit of Truth that leads and guides us into all truth. The truth that God is love and He loves you. The truth that you can't give what you don't have and you can only give what you do have. The problem is that so often we give what we THINK we have. Or we try to get what we think we DON'T have. So often we try so hard to be someone we're not, in order to get something we think we haven't got. We run around like chickens with their heads cut off looking for love in all the wrong places instead of standing firm on the Rock that is Jesus. We go anywhere and do anything instead of just going to the source. And by that I mean looking inside ourselves. Instead of running around, we ought to be still and know that He is God. Be still and know that it is HIS heart beating with love in our chests. Be still and know that we have what we need. Which means we can do what we need to do. We can give what we've got. Because we know (and believe) that we have it. It's receiving and releasing God's love. That's how we stand firm. That's how we be courageous. It's filling ourselves to overflowing with what He has already filled us with. The love inside of us coming out of us with every breath we take and every move we make... because we know it's in there. We don't have to look for love in all the wrong places. We can stand firm, knowing that we have what we need. Knowing that we are who we need to be. If anything, we need to figure out who we REALLY are. Which is very different than trying to be someone we're not. The world has told us for a long time that we're supposed to be someone we're not. And we've bought into that lie. We buy things we don't need, with money we don't have, in order to impress people that don't matter. We need to learn to be true to ourselves. We need to be so sure in the truth--that God is love and He loves you--that we can simply ignore the lie. We don't have to fight it, or get angry about it. We can just... ignore it. Don't even give it our time or attention. When you starve something, it dies. When you feed something, it grows. Don't feed into the lie. Be who you are. And be OK with being who you are. Stop conforming to the world, and understand that you have BEEN conformed into the image of God's only begotten Son! You are His beloved Son in whom He is well pleased. You can't top that. So stop trying to. Accept it and enjoy it. It's the best place to be. Living your best life is about experiencing love. And we experience love by giving it away. Because love is giving. (Did I already mention that?) If you're always focused on getting, you're missing out on what you've already got. Missing out on the experience of giving it away--sharing it. This life is a shared experience. It's not good that man should be alone. No man is an island. We're all in this together. So stand firm on the Rock of God's love, be who you are by receiving and releasing that love!