We always think it's about what we do. It's not. It's about who we are. Because what we do flows from who we are. What we do flows from what we believe. So, to me, when we're talking about tying a knot in our rope and hanging on for dear life... what we're really talking about is 1 Timothy 6:12 (NLT), "Fight the good fight of faith. Holy tightly to the eternal life to which God has called you, which you have declared so well before many witnesses." And, in my opinion, on this side of the cross, after Jesus fought and won the war to end all wars, this is the only "fight" left. A fight, in a very real sense, against ourselves. A fight against unbelief. And here's the best part about the "fight of faith," faith comes from hearing and hearing from the Word of God. In order to "fight" all we have to do is be still and know that HE is God. Listen to the still, small voice deep inside of us and believe what our heavenly Father is saying. He's saying, "You are my beloved Son in whom I am well pleased." He's saying, "I love you," with every beat of HIS heart in our chests. He's saying, "I will never leave you nor forsake you." And I get why that's a struggle for some people to believe. We look at ourselves (and each other) and we see unloveable creatures. We see all the mistakes we've made. All the bad stuff we've done. We see things that SHOULD disqualify us. Those are the facts of the matter. But truth is higher than fact. And here's the God's honest truth: "And I am convinced that nothing can ever separate us from God's love. Neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither our fears for today nor our worries about tomorrow--not even the powers of hell can separate us from God's love. No power in the sky above or in the earth below--indeed, nothing in all creation will ever be able to separate us from the love of God that is revealed in Christ Jesus our Lord" (Romans 8:38-39, NLT). Man that's powerful to me! There is literally nothing in all of creation that can separate us from God's love! That's a Rock you can stand on and build on. And, really, when you think about it, it makes perfect sense. God is love. God lives in you. He has CHOSEN to take up abode in you and make His dwelling place in you. "I heard a voice thunder from the Throne: "Look! Look! God has moved into the neighborhood, making his home with men and women! They're his people, he's their God"" (Revelation 21:4 MSG). God moved in and will never move out. He might have to do a little spring cleaning once in a while. Get rid of things that don't fit anymore or that we don't need anymore. But He's where He wants to be. He's our God. We're His people. When we think we're at the end of our rope, all we have to do is fight the good fight of faith. Hold tightly to the eternal life that we have been given. The gift of God. Not something we can earn, but something that we have been freely given. Not something we need, but something we already have! You can't earn a gift. All you can do is receive it. And, in the context of the gift of love, receiving it is releasing it. Because love is giving. You can't give what you don't have and you can only give what you do have. So you have to know and believe that you have it. That's where faith comes in. What's that old saying? "I don't know what tomorrow holds, but I do know who holds tomorrow." Our heavenly Father has our backs. We can rest easy knowing that He is on the Throne. We can rest easy knowing that even when we aren't holding on to Him... HE is holding on to us!

This one take a little bit of explaining. Matthew 18:18, "Verily I say unto you, Whatsoever ye shall bind on earth shall be bound in heaven: and whatsoever ye shall loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven." Binding and loosing. Tying and untying. But what we seem to think this verse means is, "If I bind something on earth, God will follow me lead and bind it in heaven!" But come on. That's clearly backwards. We don't create God in our image. He created us in HIS image. Look at this verse in the Berean Literal Bible, "Truly I say to you, whatever you shall bind on earth shall have been bound in heaven, and whatever you shall loose on earth shall have been loosed in heaven." We don't bind and loose in the hopes that God will follow our lead. We are able to bind what HE has already bound. We are able to loose what HE has already loosed! The work is finished. And it is what it is. Look at Jonah. He wasn't particularly happy with what God wanted him to do, because his own sense of "justice" was a lot harsher than the Lord's. He didn't want to tie the knot that God was tying. He wanted to do this his own way. And we know how that worked out for him (not very well). So what's my point for today? My point is... obedience is a trust issue. If you trust that God has your best interests at heart, if you trust that He knows the end from the beginning, if you trust that He has tied the knot that cannot be untied--look at Revelation 3:7 (NLT), "Write this letter to the angel of the church in Philadelphia. This is the message from the one who is holy and true, the one who has the key of David. What he opens, no one can close; and what he closes, no one can open." If you trust that God can make a way where there is no way... you'll stop trying to go your own way. You'll be able to shift your mindset to the place where you can respond to the Way of Grace with the Walk of Faith. Instead of always thinking it's all on you... you'll be able to rest in the arms of your heavenly Father. And let me add this to that: "Now I say to you that you are Peter (which means 'rock'), and upon this rock I will build my church, and all the powers of hell will not conquer it. And I will give you the keys of the Kingdom of Heaven. Whatever you forbid on earth will be forbidden in heaven, and whatever you permit on earth will be permitted in heaven" (Matthew 16:18-19 NLT). Again, don't get it twisted. If you forbid something, that doesn't mean God automatically will. It means that, with the keys to the Kingdom... the key of David... we can forbid what HE has forbidden and we can permit what HE has permitted. We can bind what HE has already bound and we can loose what HE has already loosed! It's not about making heaven like earth. It's about bringing heaven TO earth! That's what God promised us--the days of heaven on earth. That's what's available to us right now. The Kingdom of Heaven is at hand. It's within our reach. And we have the keys of the Kingdom--which is the revelation of who Jesus is. Who WE are. Which is who we are in Christ. Which is who Christ is in us. Jesus tied this knot around us on the cross and drew us all into Himself. He planted Himself in all of us. That's a done deal. And now that we know that the knot is tied, and cannot be untied, we don't have to worry about it slipping out of our grasp. When you're at the end of your rope, tie a knot in it and hang on, right? Well... lucky for us it is GOD who tied the knot, and it is God who is holding on to us, and it is God who will never ever let us go!

When you get to the end of your rope, tie a knot in it and hold on! That's the premise of this Rant series. But really, underneath the surface, the idea--the glorious immaculate truth--is that we THINK we're holding on to God, as we absolutely should be, but REALLY He's holding on to us and will never let us go. Look at Hebrews 13:5, "Let your convesation be without covetousness; and be content with such things as ye have: for he hath said, I will never leave thee, nor forsake thee." I like this verse, first and foremost, because of the promise there. "I will never leave you nor forsake you." If that doesn't make your faith in God explode, I don't know what will! What a promise. And, really, that's how I try to roll in my own life. That's why I tell people all the time, "I've got your back." That's important to me. That's WHAT'S important to me. And I really like the idea that is presented in Phillipians 2:4, "Look not every man on his own things, but every man also on the things of others." Take care of business, but don't get so self-centered to the point that you can't see past yourself. If I'm looking out for you, and you're looking out for me, neither one of us has to worry about ourselves. We're covered. I'm covering you, you're covering me, and that makes us both covered. It's the difference between being self-centered and being Christ-centered. To be Christ-centered is to be people-centered. Jesus said something along the lines of "Whatever you do to the least of them, you do to the King." How we treat people is how we treat God. Because God lives in people. So we need to understand the idea that love is giving. You can give without loving, but you can't love without giving. We need to understand that we love because He first loved us. You can't give what you don't have and you can only give what you do have. He filled us up with Himself--His Son, His Spirit, His love--and all we do is fill ourselves up to overflowing (with what we've already been filled with) by knowing it and believing it. By receiving it and releasing it. By giving what we've got. Sharing what we've got. And that, friends, is how we tie a knot in the rope. That, friends, is how we come to understand that when God tied a knot in the rope--which is to say, He wrapped us all up in it so that HE is the One holding us--we came to a place of all being in this life together. We always want to draw lines in the sand. Or small exclusive circles. But God's arms were open wide on the cross. That, to me, is one of the best pictures I can give you. One of the reasons that Jesus hung on a cross. In His death, His arms were open wide. Drawing us all to (and into) Him. That's such an inviting pose. If someone needs a hug, you open your arms, right? Humanity needed a hug. And we got it on the cross. That was God reconciling us back to Himself. Bringing us back to where He always wanted us to be. That was God showing us what love is. That was God tying the knot--and there's a lot to say about the Bridegroom and His bride here too. We might get to that, or I might set it aside for another whole Rant series. For today I'm trying to make the point that we don't have to worry about getting to the end of our rope. He will never leave us nor forsake us. He's in it for the long haul. Nothing can separate us from the love of God. When you're talking about God's abundant, everlasting, eternal, Resurrection Life of love... there is no end to it. How could there be? So when you're clinging to God for dear life--again, I think that's a smart place to be--don't worry about letting go. Because even if YOU do... He won't. He's the One who tied the knot around you--around all of us--and He's the One holding on!

I'm sure you've heard the saying, "If you're at the end of your rope... tie a knot in it and hold on!" (And if you've never heard it before, you have now) I think that's good advice. Sometimes if you go down swining you won't go down at all. The only true failure is failure to get up and try again. Look at Romans 10:11-13 in the NLT, "As the Scriptures tell us, "Anyone who trusts in him will never be disgraced." Jew and Gentile are the same in this respect. They have the same Lord, who gives generously to all who call on him. For "Everyone who calls on the name of the LORD will be saved."" I wanted verse 13, but I included the other two because I think they help me make my point. When we're talking about salvation here, I don't necessarily think we're talking about an afterlife. And if you listen to my podcast, you know how I feel about that anyway. What I think we're talking about here is being saved from hell on earth, and experiencing heaven on earth. We all have the same Lord, who gives generously to all who call on Him. Everyone who calls on Him will be saved. By that generous giving. For the God so loved the world He gave. And what did He generously give? His only begotten Son. Why? So that we might believe, and not perish, and have everlasting LIFE. If we're talking about a LIFE that doesn't end, how can we be talking about AFTERlife? But I digress. My point is, while I don't think you should use God ONLY as a "break glass in case of emergency" last resort--I think He should be first choice not last chance--if you get to the point where you need to be saved from something... break the glass! Call on the name of the Lord! Hold on to Him. Cling fast to the Rock and see that when you do, you will not be shaken. You will be able to withstand... anything. Everything. You'll be able to sleep in the boat while the wind and the waves ravage and rage. And then, if someone else is upset by the storm, you can speak a Word (Jesus, love) and command the storm to be still. You can be a thermostat and set the temperature instead of only being a thermometer who takes the temperature. The fire in you is always hotter than the fire you're in. Always. Because God is a consuming fire. He consumes everything else but is not consumed Himself. So that once you are utterly consumed... the only thing left is God. The only thing left... is love! The "rope" that we're haging onto... the name that we call upon in order to be saved... is Jesus. God. LOVE! And, as we're going to see in this Rant series, even though we think it's our job or our responsibility to hang on to Him... really He is hanging on to us! Holding us in His hands. Guarding us. Sheltering us. Leading us, guiding us, directing us, and protecting us. So we don't have to worry about getting to the end of our rope. We don't have to worry about hanging onto a knot and trying not to let go. The knot is what happened when God tied the rope around us! What I'm trying to say with all this imagery and cool language is that nothing can seperate us from the love of God. Nothing. Nothing we've done, or will do, or could do. Because love isn't about what you've done or what you're going to do. Love is about earning it or deserving it. Love is about who you are. And who God is. A Father who loves His Son(s). That's our Rock. That's our foundation. That's what we were created for. And that's what we're capable of. So shift your mindset and your thinking. Hold on to Him, yes, but never doubt that He is holding on to you and will never ever let you go!

God not only provides for us, He is our provision. He not only gives us what we need, but also the desires of our heart. Because, when we truly understand the heart, and that the heart is only ever concerned with love, we understand that He IS the desire of our heart. If there is a God-shaped, love-shaped void inside of you, only one thing can fill that void. God. Love. The God who IS love. So instead of looking for love in all the wrong places, we ought to go straight to the source. Come boldly to the throne of grace to find help in times of need. We all need help. We all need grace. We all need mercy and forgiveness. So instead of trying to earn something that can't be earned, doesn't it make more sense to receive the gift we've been given? To fight the good fight of faith by laying hold of the gift we've already been given? Not trying to get something, but using our faith to know and believe that we already have what we need! When Jesus went to the cross and defeated sin and death He won the war to end all wars. Which means there are no more wars that need to be fought. Which means we can rest. The battle is over, and the battle is won. We don't have to try to get anything. We don't have to try to earn our bread by the sweat of our brow. Jesus sweated great drops of blood in order to reedem us from that cursed dimension. To bring us out of labor and works (which don't work) and into the glorious Kingdom of His rest. That's why Hebrews 4:3 says, "For we which have believed do enter into rest, as he said, As I have sworn in my wrath, if they shall enter into my rest: although the works were finished from the foundation of the world." Enter into rest. Which does NOT mean WORK yourself into rest. The word "enter" there literally means "come into." And how do we come into the rest of the finished work? Not by trying to finish the work. It is already finished. We enter into that rest by knowing and believing that it IS finished! We don't have to finish it. Jesus did that. He cried out on the cross, "It is finished!" Done deal. What needed to happen... happened. And now we can enjoy the fruit of HIS labor (the fruit of the Spirit, which is love) and we can rest in HIS loving arms! Jesus' arms were spread wide on the cross. He wrapped us up in His loving embrace. Gave us everything we could need. Fulfilled the desire of our hearts. For God so loved the world He GAVE His only begotten Son to us. Why? Because He loves us and wanted us to have Him. To be able to experience Jesus's abundant, everlasting, eternal, Resurrection Life of love by letting Jesus live His own abundant, everlasting, eternal, Resurrection Life of love in us, and through us, and as us. See, the best part about God's provision for us is that He didn't just give us His life and say, "There you go. Good luck." He gave us His life and He LIVES His life in us, and through us, and as us. So that we get the full experience. So that we can have everything our heavenly Father wants us to have. Everything He has given us. He did it all for us, and all for love. He provided for us. Provided HIMSELF for us. So that we would always have everything we need. And, when we start to figure it out, everything we could ever want. In fact, He gives us abundantly MORE than we could ever ask or even think. As good as we think God is... we're not even close. Not even scratching the surface of His love. It's better, and deeper, and more powerful than we could ever imagine. And, one more time, it's not something we need. It's something we have. He has already provided it to us and for us!

I've been teasing this Rant for a while. We've been focusing on how my God has provided all your need, right? He knows what you need before you even ask for it. He made grass for a cow to eat before He ever mad a cow. But He is also ready, willing, and able to do abundantly more than we could ask or even think! Let's link two verses together. Proverbs 13:12, "Hope deferred maketh the heart sick: but when the desire cometh, it is a tree of life." And, Psalm 37:4, "Delight thyself also in the LORD; and he shall give thee the desires of thine heart." Needs and wants, right? Two completely different things. But God cares about them both. We can cast our cares on Him... because He cares for us. He doesn't just want us to survive, He wants us to THRIVE! Here's the key, though, because (as always) this is NOT an if-then statement. This is not God telling us what to do as much as it is God telling us how to do it. It's not "If you delight yourself in Him, then He will give you the desires of your heart." That's how we think things work. And maybe, to a degree, that is how they work in the natural. Do good and you will be rewarded, right? But watch this: the true desire of our heart... is God. It is love. So delighting ourselves in Him is really fulfilling the desire of our hearts! What else could the heart possibly be concerned with but love? And what (who) is God? Love! It's all about love. When the desire comes, it is a tree of life. Our true desire (and, yes, I know this is also a basic human need) is love. To be loved and to love. To be known and to know. To fill ourselves to overflowing with what God has filled us with--His love. And to let that love, then, come out naturally. With every breath we take and every move we make. Love is our new (true) nature. Love is what we desire. And it's only when we feel like we don't have that love that we turn our desires to anything and everything else. We feel like there is a God-shaped, love-shaped void inside of us. And we're desperate to fill it. So we look for love in all the wrong places and we settle for way less. Here's the news: You can't fill a God-shaped, love-shaped void with anything but God. But love! And instead of looking for it, or trying to earn it, we ought to just go to the source. When the desire comes, it is a Tree of Life. When we delight ourselves in Him (in love) the desire of our heart (love) is fulfilled! Instead of trying to get something we think we haven't got, we ought to just be grateful for, and enjoy, and share, what we have got. And in that way EXPERIENCE what we have got. Love is giving. You experience it when you give it away. When you share it. When you let what's inside come out by knowing and believing that it's in there. At the most basic level the desire of our heart is love. That's what we need... and that's what we want. And, by the way, that's what we have! That's the gift of God. He is our provision. He has given us everything we need. And, in giving us what we need, He has given us what we want! It's just a matter of receiving it. Knowing what we really want and knowing that we have what we really want. Hope deferred makes the heart sick. But usually that's because we're hoping for the wrong thing. When we know what we have, and have what we want (what we really want... love) that's when we can live with that attitude of gratitude. That's when we can live out of our abundance. That's when we can stop worrying about ourselves and instead we can put our time, talent, and treasure into loving God by loving people!

There's a story in the Old Testament of the Bible about God requiring a sacrifice. He tells His man, Abraham, to kill and offer up Abraham's son, Isaac. And Abraham, having faith in God, agrees. The two of them go up a mountain and get everything ready. Then Isaac asks the 64,000 dollar question. He says, "We've got the wood and everything... where's the sacrifice?" Abraham replies, "...My son, God will provide himself a lamb for a burnt offering..." (Genesis 22:8). Which can be interpreted one of two ways (or, in my opinion, both ways). It can mean God will provide an offering for Himself, OR God will provide HIMSELF as an offering! And, come on, we're talking about a lamb, so of course we're talking about Jesus. You know, the Lamb of God which taketh away the sin of the world? So God provided Himself FOR Himself in order to protect us. If that isn't the Gospel (the good news) I don't know what is. And then we fast forward a few verses in the book of Genesis and we see this: "Abraham named the place Yahweh-Yireh (which means "the LORD will provide"). To this day, people still use the name as a proverb: "On the mountain of the LORD it will be provided"" (Genesis 22:14, NLT). That's so powerful to me. Because knowing WHAT God provides is important, but knowing WHERE to find it is equally important. I'm convinced that we waste so much of our three T's (Time, Talent, Treasure) looking for love in all the wrong places. When what we really ought to do is just go to the source. Our provision (Jesus) is provided to us on the mount of the Lord. We can come boldly to the throne of grace to find help in times of trouble. We can look God in the face (in the mirror) and find grace in His eyes. We don't have to beg our heavenly Father for anything. We don't have to earn our bread by the sweat of our brows. Jesus sweated great drops of blood, and His blood redeemed us from that cursed dimension. Now we can walk in newness of life. Now we can understand, and experience, the truth that we have no lack because our God has no lack! The Father loveth the Son and hath given all things into His hands! We have it all. Simply because God loves us and wanted us to have it. That's why He gave it to us. That's why He gave HIMSELF to us. God doesn't just provide... He is our provision. He is everything we could ever need. And He freely gave Himself to us. For God so loved the world, right? We don't need to get anything, because we have everything we need! (And, yes, I'm still planning to talk about God not only giving us what we need, but what we want. That's for tomorrow. I promise.) We have everything we need... because we have Jesus! Love is the answer. All we need is love. When you start building on that Rock and that foundation, that's when you build something that will withstand the test of time. That's when you build something meaningful. Something that will last. Something that is worth building. And what I'm talking about... is relationships. God and people. That's what matters most. Loving God and loving people. Loving God BY loving people. Letting what's inside come out by knowing and believing that it's in there. By filling yourself to overflowing with what you've already been filled with. Experiencing the love you've been given by giving it away. By sharing it. Ready for this one? Experiencing what you've been provided with by providing for others! Receiving it and releasing it. Freely you have been given, freely you can give!

The Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want. That, to me, kind of says it all about provision. We have someone looking out for us and taking care of us. Someone who loves us and was willing to--and, in fact, did--lay His life down for us. Why? Because He wanted us to have His life. To experience it as HE lives His own life in us, and through us, and as us. Point being: We don't have to try to be someone we're not in order to get something we think we haven't got. We can rest. He makes us lay down in green pastures. We can be safe and secure in His loving arms. We can enjoy the fruit of HIS labor instead of trying to earn our bread by the sweat of our brows. God has us covered. That's the short and sweet version of what I'm trying to say. But let's make this practical. Let's see where the rubber meets the road. Because God (in large part) works through people. So look at Philippians 2:4, "Look not every man on his own things, but every man also on the things of others." And in the NLT, "Don't look out only for your own interests, but take an interest in others, too." Here's what I really like about that: If I'm looking out for you, and you're looking out for me... neither one of us has to worry about ourselves. We can be selfless instead of selfish. We can look past ourselves. Remember yesterday when we talked about praying? And how God knows what we need before we even ask it? The prayer isn't about begging for God to give us stuff. It's about expressing gratitude for what He has already given us. The attitude of gratitude. Knowing and believing that we are completely covered. Knowing and believing that I have no lack because my God has no lack. Knowing and believing that my God will provide all of YOUR need. That's such a key turn in that phrase to me. Paul wasn't even worried about himself. He was making sure the people he was writing to knew that THEY were covered. He KNEW he was covered. And he knew that his God had THEM covered too. Give it to God. Problem solved. He provides for us. Because He IS our provision. Everything we need... we find it in Him. Because what we need... is love. And God is love. In order to provide for us, He gave us His only begotten Son. Because He knew that was what we needed. And once we know and believe that we have Jesus... everything else just lines up from there. Once we know that we are planted on the Rock of God's love (the Rock that IS God's love... again, God is love) we cannot be shaken. And here's the cool part (I haven't even gotten into God giving us our desires yet, but here's the cool part) when you know that you cannot be shaken, that's when you can help others stand firm and tall. You can live out of your abundance. You can give what you've got, knowing that it is what others need. You can live and love, knowing that those two things are really the same thing. To live is to love and to love is to live. We have what we need. That's my point. Because we have Jesus. Because we have love!

Growing up, we didn't have a lot of money. But I'm not sure I really understood that in the moment. Because, as far as I knew, we always had what we needed. Which doesn't mean I got everything I wanted all the time. Exactly the opposite. If I wanted something, I had to work for it and earn it. Which, I believe, has served me well as I've gotten older. But while that is how the world works in the natural... it's even better in the Spiritual. Because in the Spiritual, well, not only will "...my God shall supply all your need according to his riches in glory by Christ Jesus," (Philippians 4:19) but, "Now all glory to God, who is able, through his mighty power at work within us, to accomplish infinitely more than we might ask or think" (Ephesians 3:20 NLT). More than we could even think! All of our needs... covered. And infinitely more than that! That's incredible to me. Amazing. And here's why: "When you pray, don't babble on and on as the Gentiles do. They think their prayers are answered merely by repeating their words again and again. Don't be like them, for your Father knows exactly what you need even before you ask him!" (Matthew 6:7-8 NLT). Think about it. Before God created cows He created grass. He knew the cow would need to eat, so He made the provision before it was even required. God doesn't make us work for anything, Spiritually speaking, is my point. He lavishes His gifts upon us. Blesses us beyond measure... so that we can be a blessing. That's key. Because you don't experience what you have by getting it. You experience it by giving it away. Love is giving. It is never about getting. If you're trying to get something, you're missing out on (and robbing yourself of) what you've already been given. What you already have. And, listen, I know a lot of the time we think we don't deserve good things in our lives. We look at our mistakes and our bad decisions and our screw ups and we think those things disqualify us from "deserving" good things. Guys. Deserve has nothing to do with it. If you're judging yourself--and others--by actions, you're messing up. Look at John 7:24, "Judge not according to the appearance, but judge righteous judgment." Or, in the NLT, "Look beneath the surface so you can judge correctly." What's real is what's deep down inside. And sometimes it's hard for that to get out, BECAUSE of all the surface stuff. It's easy to get buried under that surface stuff. The world will pile it up on us. But there's a still, small voice deep inside that tells us the ultimate truth of the universe with every beat of God's heart in our chest. The ultimate truth of the universe that is "God is love and He loves you." The ultimate truth of the universe that is God saying, "I love you, I love you, I love you and nothing can ever make me stop loving you!" When we listen to THAT voice... when we look beneath the surface and see what's really going on... that's when we can stop judging each other and just love each other. That's when we can trust in the Lord and the power of HIS might. That's when we can be still and know that HE is God. Let me close today's Rant with Psalm 132:15, "I will abundantly bless her provision: I will satisfy her poor with bread." I want to make it clear: Provision is about needs. Not wants. But as we go through this we will see that our heavenly Father takes care of what we need first and foremost. But He's not against giving us what we want. When our priorities are straight, we will understand that we have no lack because our God has no lack. That we, in fact, have abundance, and can live out of that abundance!

When you have Jesus saying things like, "But many that are first shall be last; and the last first" (Mark 10:31), it seems to me that we ought to change our mindsets a little bit. The Kingdom of God (Kingdom of Love) doesn't operate the way we think it should. It has it's own Divine Order. We don't bring earth to heaven, Jesus brought heaven to earth. So in the same way we need to chang the way we think about things like holiness. Instead of thinking that being "holy" makes us better than people, we need to understand that true holiness is simply loving people! And in order to do that (I'll use Jesus as the example again), you sometimes have to get down on your hands and knees and wash people's feet. You have to meet people where they're at. See, Jesus didn't expect, or demand, that His disciples be clean. He cleaned them. He washed them with the Word (which is Jesus, which is love), and He literally washed them with water and a towel. He made them holy by being holy to them. We learn how to love by learning how we are loved. We show people God by showing them love. Guys. Come on. It's all about love. When you know that you are loved, you can love. Because when you know that you are loved... you can BE love. You can know that you ARE love. So stop worrying about what you're not and simply begin to embrace who you are. Esteem others higher than yourself. And, listen, being humble doesn't mean thinking less of yourself. It means thinking of yourself less. If I've got your back, and you've got mine, that means neither one of us has to worry about ourselves. And that's a great place to be. When you know your heavenly Father is taking care of you (usually in the form of your neighbor taking care of you) that's when you can stop stressing out. Because you've cast your cares upon HIM, because He cares for you. Let go and let God, as they say. And when you're not stessing out about yourself, that's when you can see past yourself and see the needs of other people. I'm telling you, there is nothing more gratifying than making other people happy. Acts 20:35 in the New Living Translation says, "And I have been a constant example of how you can help those in need by working hard. You should remember the words of the Lord Jesus: 'It is more blessed to give than to receive.'" And I'm telling you, it really is. Because love is giving! You have to receive before you can give--you can't give what you don't have and you can only give what you do have--but the point of receiving is being able to give. We are blessed to be a blessing. Enjoying what we've been blessed with is just a fringe benefit. Let me say it like this: If you want to feel forgiven... forgive someone. If you want to feel love... love someone. If you want to feel holy... be ye holy as your Father in heaven is holy. Which means... forgive people and love people! I think those are two of God's go to moves. He forgives (He has forgiven), and He loves. That's not just what He does, that's who He is. And because as He is, so are we in this world, that's who WE are. We are forgiven. We are loved. We are holy. If we can accept that we are the righteousness of God in Christ... we ought to be able to accept that His holiness is our holiness. We ought to be able to accept that we are who our heavenly Father says we are. And once we accept it--and believe it--we can start to BE it. You don't do in order to be, but you do because you be. You ARE holy. So you can BE holy by loving people!