All We Need part 5
A long time ago my pastor told me that people go to church for a whole lot of reasons. And I've found this to be true outside of church as well. We do things for a whole lot of reasons--even though we don't seem to understand that the single reason driving EVERYTHING we do is the desire to be loved. We do things because we feel guilty. Or because we are trying to hide something else we did (and you KNOW that'll just keep snowballing). We do lots of different things for seemingly lots of different reasons because we are looking for love in all the wrong places. Trying to earn something that was freely given and can only be received (and released). Look at Romans 13:8, "Owe no man any thing, but to love one another: for he that loveth another hath fulfilled the law." I can't express how important this idea is. We don't owe anybody anything... except love. This takes all of the other reasons for doing ANYTHING and throws them out the window. I have a picture on my phone that says, "Love made me do it." That's the way Jesus lived His life. Everything He did, He did because He was motivated by love and moved with compassion. He didn't live FOR the Father, He lived BY the Father. Just as we don't live FOR Him, but we live BY Him. "I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me: and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave himself for me" (Galatians 2:20). We live by having faith in the One who lives in us! Not by trying to live His life, but by letting Him live His life in and through and as us! All we need is love. And that's what we have. That's what the Holy Spirit is constantly and continually revealing to us. There's a still small voice inside of us whispering the truth--leading and guiding us into all truth--and it says, "I love you, I love you, I love you. I can't stop loving you. You are my beloved Son in whom I am well pleased." And because of that love... because we HAVE everything we need... we can stop trying to get something we think we don't have, and instead we can share what we DO have! We can fulfill the law, so to speak, by loving each other. We can pay what we owe, if I can say it that way, because we have something to give. You can't give what you don't have. And you can only give what you do have. So knowing and believing the love of Christ is what equips and empowers us to obey the New Commandment of loving each other as Jesus loves us! It's not OUR love, and it's not us trying to GET love. It's HIS love that we already HAVE. And because we already have it, and because it's too good to keep to ourselves, we can share it. Because we are filled (to overflowing) with what we (and everybody else) needs... we can let it out naturally. We can give it to everybody who needs it (which is everybody!). We can shine that light. We can fill that void. We can love... because we are loved. Because we are love!